Persistent drizzle came in on a northerly wind. Therenwere 111vin my bedroom in the Jesus y Maria Aubergue in PamplonaKim from Korea was on the top bunk over me. He had heard of Hemingway but had not read him. One clown rose at 5am and started straffing his light around the dormitory. It rained and … Read more
Casa Paderborn is a smal Aubergue run by German volunteers. I reached this quaint old hostel on the banks of the Rio Arca after the trek from Zubiri. It was my third day and third stage. I was tired but no aches. Usually the third day is the wall of fatigue regardless of the stage’s … Read more
Walked 15.3 kilometres from the Albergue in Epinal to Zubiri. A relatively short stage and I reached Albergue Ezpeleku at about 2.30pm. It was €14 for the night just for a bed. The last few kilometres were very steep down along exposed limstone strata and rubble. You had to keep concentrated and there was strain … Read more
Walked the challenging Napoleon Route over the Pyrenees and down into Roncesvalles, a distance of 28 kilometres and rising over 1 200 metres through the Col de Lepoder from Saint Jean Pied de Port.We left in a soupy fog at 7.20am. It was around 3 degrees C and we arrived in Roncevalles at 4.30pm with … Read more
Maybe the last of the rains today but it was heavy in spurts and misty fog hung in the valleys so I decided to chill for the day in Saint Jean and get an dawn-early start in the morning. I was staying in a private two-room guest house called Maison Bakea just further out on … Read more
The train from Gare de Bayonne became a winding bus ride up the valley of the Nive River through lush-green forests to Saint Jean Pied de Port. Anyway the road hugged the single-track railway line. Then we saw the Pyrenees beyond and they looked daring and brooding below dary grey clouds that bellowed and clung … Read more
Fly out on Wednesday to Biarritz and then by train to St Jean Pied de Port and the main starting point of the Camino Frances and the “foot of the pass” to Rocesvalles (Spanish) Orreaga (Basque) and Roncevaux in French. It could be the most challenging day of the entire Camino all at the beginning … Read more
It is surprising and can be funny sometimes when some of our chalk n’ cheese passions collide. Two of my great passions are metal-exploration and tennis. The Serbian Government has cancelled Rio Tinto’s licenses for the Jadar lithium project. The project has a Capex of US$2.4 billion. The development has met with fierce pockets of … Read more
Rio Tinto was one of the biggest beneficiaries of China’s rapid recovery from the pandemic. In 2021 huge profits from its iron ore mining generated a $9bn cash-back to shareholders. This pay out included a record final dividend of $6.5bn. It is old physical economy. You can’t get much older than mining as an economic … Read more
I was a little baffled by the shenanigans last week over the copper price. Maybe it is something to do with some solar impetus related to the summer solstice. The price of the red metal might seem a trivial concern if it was not so critical, more than ever, to our global economy and civilisation. The price of … Read more