I was on the Camino Frances 5 times during 2013, and surprised to see patches of snow around O Cebreiro in mid May, extending to the hamlet of Fonfria.

In June I had a lovely but cool walk from St Jean to Roncesvalles in y, as we were sitting having lunch the wind shifted and roared in from the north, dropping significantly the temperature. We quickly finished lunch and hurried on, soon reaching the Col de Leopeder and dropping down the direct route through the forest to Roncesvalles. This route can be very slippery when wet and whilst better marked now it is best only walked by more experienced walkers and not by lone walkers – it is easy to slip and twist and ankle and for most of it there is no mobile phone coverage. There is a confusing sign just at the bottom of the ridge when one emerges from the forest to a quite small clearing.

The sign points both right and left to Roncesvalles (which can’t be seen at this point), take the right branch (signed Roncesvalles 5′ = 5 minutes walk), the left branch goes on a local path and back around some 3kms to Roncesvalles, though some people get lost on it and end up at Burgette hence missing Roncesvalles.