Will the Real Bob take One Step Forward?

Hello Everybody!

My name is Aurore, I am a social media specialist volunteer at Orchids and yesterday I met Ana from Slovenia.

Ana, as you know, makes up the youngest member of our Odd Couple Team Camino and is walking down the Camino de Santiago with Bob, the oldest. She was supposed to meet him today in St Jean-Pied-de-Port (France) for the beginning of their journey.

Ana called me at 4:00 pm to tell me she just arrived by plane from London and she is getting a bus from the airport to Bayonne and then a train to St Jean. I tell her we will meet in St Jean, at the train station when she arrives. Suddenly, knowing French trains, because I am French, I decided I better check on this train via the Internet. I need to do this while I am swimming in a lake high in the mountains, not so far from the Bayonne.

To make a quick description, Bayonne is only 53 km from St Jean but because of the mountain road it easily takes 1 hour to drive. So when I check on the Internet, I see that the next train will be at 6:00 pm and arrives at 7:36 in St Jean. It is only 4:30 pm and I can’t come back home too late so my Brother and I decide to go to Bayonne, pick Ana up and drive her to St Jean by car. When we arrive it was not difficult to find her because she was wearing her Orchids of light tee-shirt.

After a quick stop at the supermarket we drive for an hour chatting about our lives, her walk and the meeting at 5:00 pm with Bob… My first thought is….”Oh God it’s now 6:00!”

We arrive, take the first picture and then… Where the heck is Bob?

We check at the registration office but he was not there. Asking around we discover that that there is a Bob sleeping in a municipal refuge, a few meters past the office. We go, hoping he would be there, but we only find a bed with a ticket “Bob”. By chance, an Australian pilgrim is resting nearby and informs us that he talked to a Bob at the office during the afternoon and this guy was saying he was waiting for an “Ana from Slovenia”.

It was getting very late and regrettably I must return home and leave Ana at the refuge where she promises me she will send me a message to let me know if she finds Bob or not.

Just then on the way back to the car, my Brother and I see a bald man, and I know Bob is bald, so I stop at the restaurant and go ask this guy:

“Hi, sorry for bothering you, but are you “Bob”?

He starts laughing and then tells us that he is not but he did meet a Bob who told him he was waiting for an “Ana from Slovenia”. At this point I can’t help but wonder if every bald man on the Camino has been asked if they are called Bob!
My brother and I head back across the countryside and at last I received a text from Ana that she has found the real Bob. At the time of this posting they completed the first 30 kilometer leg of their journey across the Pyrenees. So the real Bob took a few thousand steps forward.

Good luck guys and enjoy your trip!

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