Day 5: Stage 3: Champlemy

28 kms, wet mist/solid rain, 9-12°

Settling Into The Traces!

My stay in Tannay was really nice. While the place was a little tired, I was pleased to have a dry place to sleep and i enjoyed a fabulous dinner last night. My hosts were very kind and allowed me access as soon as I arrived. They cooked me a really nice meal of pork shanks that basically fell off the bone. There was also mashed potatoes and steamed spinach, plus an appetizer that was basically a small quiche. Really tasty! I also enjoyed a first glass of red wine since arriving in France, and that was a treat! The couple must’ve been close to 80 years old and we spent a nice evening speaking in mostly French.

Yesterday after walking in the quite gruesome mud, I decided that because it was going to rain today that I would look for a different route to Champlemy. I felt that it would make more sense to stay off the muddy trails and road walk instead. The actual chemin also has quite a bit of road walking too, but figuring out an alternate route would allow me to miss all the mud.

I took my plan to dinner and we spent time after dinner refining my route. This is mostly what’s reflected in the map above, but I couldn’t set the right scale to show all the roads. Today I made changes to my route on the fly, and there were a lot of twists and turns that don’t show up on the map.

Basically, as soon as I set out the door a fairly steady, damp mist began to fall. The type that soon soaks you. I already had my rain pants on, and immediately added my rain jacket.

The mist intensified after I left the village and began to climb. There were a fair number of nice hills today and my app indicates that I climbed about 500 m vertical.

I wrote this as I walked in the early part of the day;

Well, it has so far been a misty, very wet day, but I have enjoyed myself immensely! I love where I live, but as a somewhat serious walker, I get tired of walking repetitively in the same spaces. I think I’ve previously commented on my blog about this. Even though it’s cool and wet here today, it’s just so nice to walk on new roads and different trails with ever-changing vistas.

I walked some beautiful one lane country roads, sometimes through forests and other times across farm land. I even had a deer jump out ahead of me, but it moved off very quickly.

Then it began to rain steadily, and over the next half hour the wind came up strongly and the rain intensified. I was pretty happy to be off the trails. I don’t mind road walking because I often walk on roads at home so my body is well set up to handle it. One of the concerns about the boots I bought was that the sole padding had been reduced, and some people commented in the reviews about this. However, in my particular circumstances, this has thus far proven to not be of concern. I’m not using any type of shoe inserts and for the first time I’m not applying even a small amount of Vaseline. No problems…so far.😎

A funny thing happened along the way. I noticed that I was often following the Chemin for those with bicycles, and also a GR route. This appeased me somewhat as it felt as though I was still on the chemin…and I was!

By this point, perhaps 6 km from the end I was beginning to look forward to completing the stage. The wind continued to increase and it was just so wet. Navigation was difficult because even though I keep my phone in a waterproof pouch, the screen still gets wet each time I bring it out, making it difficult to even open the phone. I’ll be making an adjustment tomorrow, which is also supposed to be wet.

I did finally arrive to find a really old coach house as my destination for the night. It’s a gite and I’ll get my meals here as well.

A French walker showed up after I arrived carrying a very large pack. He reminded me of a French woman who once told me that the French guys seem to often carry packs on the chemin packed like they are preparing to climb to Mount Everest base camp😂 He wasn’t at Vezelay 2 nights ago so I suspect he was one of the 6 who were there the night before I was. I’m looking forward to chatting over dinner.

It will be a longer stage tomorrow to La Charitè-sur-Loire and it is supposed to be raining again. Tonight after dinner I’ll be looking to see what road options might present, but I suspect there won’t be many.

Locked in the traces
Climbing through the clouds and mist
The way seems at peace

Bon Chemin!

Geoff 🍷☔️🌻