Blogs from Midi-Pyrénées, France, Europe - page 51

We emerged from the cave, tired, sore and grumpy, with no breakfast, and kept walking. Today was an easier walk than yesterday had been. We stopped at a fountain and chatted to some other pilgrims (pilgrims is the word for people doing this walk). One girl, Louise, from New Zealand, was telling me about a hostel of some sort that we could stay at that night, in about 12 klms, for only 5 euros. The thought of a real bed after the previous night's sleep was quite tempting. So we kept walking, tired and hungry. At one point Ezra was so hungry that, much to Kellie's dismay, he ate some berries off a bush. "I'm not going to have any sympathy for you when you're sick!" Kellie warned Ezra. "It's ok, I'm almost certain they're blueberries! ... read more

We arrived in St. Jean Pied De Port in the evening. I didn't know what to expect. When I told my friend Keith I wanted to do the Camino De Santiago, an 800-or-so klm walk through Spain, and asked for advice, he just said 'go to St. Jean Pied De Port. " That was all the information I'd been given, I was still having trouble remembering the name of this walk. The train ride was gorgeous, crossing through rainforests and rivers. Kellie, my sister, Ezra, her boyfriend and I were very excited in anticipation of what lay ahead. In my mind were images of hiking through forests like these, just the 3 of us, pitching our tents, lighting campfires, laying out under the stars and a full moon...we were making a few blasphemous Monty Python jokes ... read more

Sunday 30th July We headed for the ski resort of Cauteret which in summer becomes a base for mountain walking. I was worried about the brakes so took a longer route via Lourdes to avoid the more tortuous gradients. By being economical with the brakes we arrived safely having negotiated yet another beautiful gorge. Cauteret is surrounded by even steeper peaks than Laruns. The cable car passes right over the town centre. Our camping pitch was right beside the mountain river. (The Gave de Cauteret). We're really getting into the French cafe life enjoying a coffee most days. Also enjoyed a couple of Grimbergen in a friendly cafe near the covered market (which has wonderful cheeses) Monday 31st July The clouds are very low over the surrounding peaks and didn't really clear all day so we ... read more

Yesterday we drove down to San Sebastian, which is a Spanish town right on the border. We all fell asleep, but I think the drive took about an hour and a half. Being residents of a Chateau, we naturally have a driver to take us places. His name is Patrice, and he drives the manual minivan (do they even sell manual minivans in the states?) like a race car. As it turns out, he is a pretty interesting guy. Born right around the Chateau, he has spent significant amounts of time in Britain, Canada, Australia, the US, and Argentina, where he met his wife. He speaks English, Spanish, and French. He apparently just worked his way around these destinations, bartending in England and picking cherries in Canada. Alain (pronounced Alan with a French accent), our cook, ... read more

We left Benassay around 9.30 and due to a couple of unforeseen hiccups 8 hours later arrived in the medieval town of St Antonin Noble Val. First mistake was following the sign that read (Bis) Toulouse. We knew that ultimately we wanted to head towards Toulouse, as St Antonin is in that direction (some 80 kms away from Toulouse). After about 20kms we figured that “Bis” must mean “scenic route” or something very similar as while we still headed in the right direction, we certainly were going through some windy time consuming back roads. We probably lost about 25mins before getting back on track, and heading to Limoges on the A-route (basically the open motorway where you can hum along at 150km/hr and still get left in the dust of the locals in their 1.3L 1987 ... read more