Sleeping in a dormitory - I've not done this for
Up in the morning at 06.20, followed by repacking of backpacks. Breakfast was simple a bowl of coffee (were in France) plus bread and jam. They had one of those hotel toast conveyor belts that only make the bread warm - toast is not really a thing in Europe.
We set off at 07.20 into the mist.

In the misty morning with a brown eyed girl - cue the Van Morrison song!
We were promised rain but it was just a lot of mist. We were both wearing ponchos as we expected the worst.
I will include a diagram of today's journey.

We start from Refuge Orisson, marked with an A in the diagram and travelling right to left.
Highlights of today included this cow

Which is a bit strange as it has no bell round its neck, unlike the other even-toed ungulates and even the horses.
We saw these birds both yesterday and today.

We think these are Griffon Vultures. They were circling above in groups of 6-8, probably waiting to pick off walkers overcome by the 32°C heat.
Back to the walk. This post shows how far we were going.

This walk was relatively gentle compared to yesterday. But we had no heat and a cool mist to walk through.
Lots of herbivores and a few raptors were seen today, plus lots of slugs.
The scenery was stunning. At times were walking above the mist.
It was uphill a long way to the Virgin Mary, which is a rather strange statue.

We headed up and up and found a van selling coffee, boiled eggs and bananas, amongst other trail food. So we had to stop for instant coffee. Mmm! It still tasted good.

Today we had to cross the France-Spain border. We knew it was a cattle grid but expected it to be marked. We passed the Fountain of Roland

Crossed a cattle grid, which was so boring we couldn't be bothered to take a photo as there was no way it was the.. A few metres further on we saw this

This is a post showing we are in Navarra, Spain. We could have gone back to the cattle grid to emulate the Simpson's famous France- America skit, but really couldn't be bothered...
Anyway, we're now in Spain.

This is where the route splits from the road on the French side. It goes up and up between the two central peaks. This must have been one of the routes used by the French Resistance during WW2. There is a monument to resistance fighters tortured and executed by the Nazis - a reminder of Europe's turbulent past.
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