Having completed the walk from Le Puy en Valle last year and saying “Never again”. We are back in Europe embarking on yet another walk. This one is a continuation from St-Jean Pied de Port in France to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.

First of all we have to get to SJPP which over the next 24 hours will see us travelling by car, plane, walking and train.

The first part, by car, from the South coast of England to Stanstead Airport fills us with trepidation as it entails travelling half way round the dreaded M25 motorway. Luckily for us the gods were on our side and having left at 7:15am we arrived at the airport in plenty of time for our 2:00pm departure.

We had paid extra on our flight to allow us to take onboard larger carry on bags, thus enabling us to miss the queues at the other end. This saw us on our third mode of transport for the day, that is walking. Last year we discovered that it was a straight road from Bayonne to Biarritz airport and only 8 kms. Far easier than negotiating the French taxi signage, and it also allowed us time to stop off at Decathlon to pick up some new walking poles.