I arrived in St Jean late Sunday afternoon. I met a couple of people in Bayonne and travelled on the bus to St Jean. It was actually hard to find a bed. The town was bulging with Pilgrims. I finally settled for a single room for 25€ in a small pensione up the main cobblestone street. Terrible sleep, maybe 3 hrs only. Tons of excitement or anxiety about the start of the journey. The plan has always been to start on 1st September but I could have gone today. The thing was that the pilgrim office said there was a storm coming through and it would be safer to walk around the mountain to Roncevalles. So I decided to stay and stick to the plan……and as it turns out the storm which came through at 3pm was unbelievable. You couldn’t see anything for about 30 mins. Just the fury of a storm like I have only seen in a cyclone. Glad I waited. I found new accommodation in a better albergue for 10€ went to have a pilgrim dinner at a local restaurant of salad, roast chicken and apple tart with wine…..good day all up…now for a decent nights sleep..