Brazil and Blackberry Way...

Click on photo for Roncevaux info...

Une autre histoire interculturelle en anglais...

The steep track which descends from the Alto del Perdon is strewn with smooth riverstones, mostly the size of Easter eggs.

Sun and rain and a thousand years of passing pilgrims have washed out the dusty Navarran soil, leaving a shingly scar on the westerly slope. The mark is visible on Google Earth as well as from Puente La Reina, which is ten kilometres distant on the fertile plain of the Arga.
One stone, hidden on the very edge of the path, under an almond branch, is flatter and darker than the rest.

I pick up the object, wipe away the dust, and show my Australian brother-in-law the underside.

"Crikey. It's a blooming BlackBerry".

"Es el Camino, amigo. The owner will not be far away".

Pressing its on-button, we note the owner's name: Mirna.

Then we are overtaken by Harald, a Berliner with whom we'd shared chocolate and a yarn under the wind turbines back there on the summit.

"Harald, you'll see someone called Mirna up ahead. Tell her we have her 'phone, alles gut"

"Keine probleme", and off he strides on teutonic, sunburnt legs.

Click on family photo for a Brazilian memory,
as Mirna (centre) is reunited with her Blackberry...

Half an hour lower, our family foursome is sitting in a pool of olive treeshade, drinking tea from a thermos when a beaming Mirna turns up in her cycling helmet but without a bike. Though we have never met, she greets us like long-lost friends.

She explains in elegant, effortless English that she is from Brazil, and that her daughter works in London. "I will send you a 'photo when I reach Santiago".

A month later, an extract on the computer screen reveals that Roncesvalles, Orreaga in Basque, Roncevaux in French, translates as "Blackberry Valley "...

A jingle hails the arrival of an email from Sao Paulo.

One click shows a smiling Mirna in September Santiago. She sends kind words and best wishes.

The message closes with automatically generated Brasilero: "Enviado do meu BlackBerry".