Day 8: Stage 6: Bourges

34 km, cloud, sun with late rain, 10-14°

Good Walking Company!

I must say that it was a bit of a relief this morning when I opened the door and found no rain falling. I have put on my rain gear every stage of this walk. I’ve seen a little sun, I’ve seen a lot of cloud and I’ve seen more rain than I would like. That said, the walk has been wonderful and I’ve met more people walking than I expected. Last night was a great example of the camaraderie that forms on the Camino, and one of the reasons I really enjoy what I do. We had a lot of fun last night, lots of battering and trying to figure out the various languages in the room. I think we had lights out by 10, and I read for another hour. I don’t usually go to sleep very early when I’m on these walks and oddly I don’t seem to require that much sleep. My bunk mates were all well-behaved during the night with very little snoring reported from all quarters, happily including from myself! It was certainly stuffy and damp in the room with so much wet gear hanging out to dry. Two of the women came in with some really wet gear.

This morning a quick breakfast of yogurt and then out the door and on the road just after 7.

Hil (one of the two Dutch women) was right behind me.

Today would again be all road walking and I’ve put a few route adjustments on the above map. Many areas were saturated and there was water flowing freely and pooling in many lower areas. But everything is sure green!

The sky slowly began to show some signs of clearing. It was a very positive and welcome development.

Hil remained fairly close behind me and she later sent me a couple of photos. She is tall and lean like many of the Dutch are, and I’d thought she looked like a very strong walker. She was.

When we finally turned off this endless highway I decided to wait for Hil to catch up and invited her to walk together. Had we been horses we would have been well matched for pulling a wagon or a plow as we walked comfortably at the same pace. She just recently retired from a very responsible position and is walking from her home near Amsterdam to Santiago via the Norte. Hil has been walking for some 37 days. A very nice retirement adventure! And Rob, I think she’s better at taking selfies than I am.😂 I’m hoping that she and Annemarie will have a chance to connect at some point.

In any event, we both enjoyed having some company on a long stage. It really helped to pass the time. It can get a bit lonely on the long stages.

We passed through several villages and towns today, but this being Sunday none of the bars or little shops were open. We had both hoped to find somewhere to get a bit of food because neither of us had been able to eat very much before departing. We were both carrying snacks, so we were not completely without resources.

Some of the day was spent walking along quiet roads, and with this being my 4th consecutive day of mostly road walking (over 130 kms), it can become a bit hard on the body.

As I was saying, lots of surface water around. This stream had popped its banks.

We finally arrived on the outskirts of Bourges and as we were passing a KFC fast food shop the smell caught us and pulled us inside. I haven’t eaten this sort of food in many years, but we were so hungry that we decided to just go for it. I’ll admit, when I’m that hungry almost anything will do, and this did just fine! After our late lunch it took a little while to get the legs working properly again, but they eventually kicked in as we neared the Jardens Des Marias. This is a very interesting place that I’d read was an excellent way into the city core.

From here, we walked into the centre of the city and directly to the massive cathedral, which was essentially the reason I chose the Northwestern variant. However, this is my second blog post tonight and I think I will cover our visit to the cathedral in tomorrow’s post. I had originally planned to take a rest day here because the city is quite interesting. However, because it’s so difficult to find a bed over the next several days I had to adjust my plans just so that I could find a place to sleep tomorrow night and the following night. We discussed this very problem last night, and everybody was having the same challenge. This is the reason why some of the stages are reasonably long.

I’m going to finish going through all my gear now and making sure that everything is in shape for tomorrow. I think it will be close to 30 km again tomorrow, and I will have to stop to pick up groceries early and that, or I will have nothing to eat tomorrow night and the following morning. I have no meaningful food left in my pack, so I’m hoping to find a place to get breakfast on my way out of town tomorrow. It’s Monday morning, and this is a big city, so I’m not expecting a problem on that front.

It’s been raining off and on since arriving here. I need to look ahead of the forecast, and hopefully tomorrow will be a good day.

Bon chemin!

Geoff 🍷🌻