Day 40: Stage 34: Ostabat

31 km, Sunny & Hot! 30°

My Quest Is Over! 🐖 🐷 🐽

I don’t really know where to start? So much has happened in such a short time. I guess the best place to start is at the beginning with the sunrise.

You may have noticed that I put in two walking maps today. The first half of the walk, approximately 15 km, was relatively flat compared to yesterday, and the second map reflects the foothills we trampled through, a further 16 km. It was sort of a story about two halves.

The first half wasn’t exactly flat, But it was less challenging than the second half.

For sure there were flowers today. Lots of beautiful flowers! Damn, but I love walking in the spring!

The first hay has been cut and baled.

A stork nest showed up on the top of a hydro pole. Two chicks in the nest!

Ah, my friend Ken is catching up on my posts as I write this one. He’s been super busy getting out his manuscript for his first book about walking with a second on the way. It’s great that he’s able to check in, always appreciated!

Heading towards Saint Palais our trail turned into a bicycle path. Imagine our surprise when we found that the trail was actually a daycare center!

But it gets better! The circus is coming to town this weekend for a three day gig! You don’t see a lot of these circuses anymore because they’re kind of going out of style. So I was really excited to deviate from the route to go and see where they were setting up. I wanted a drink, but I felt this was more important. You probably agree with me.😂

We arrived just as they were beginning to set up. Could it get any better today?

We finally stopped for a drink in town and found ourselves some lunch to carry along with us as well.

Another pretty little town with historical significance.

OK, that’s where the first half of the stage finished. Everything kind of changed from there with lots of lovely climbs, exactly 1337 m.

So much beautiful scenery today! Every which way I looked there was usually something beautiful to see.

We were getting close to where the three chemin join up. The Le Puy, the Nantes and of course the quiet Voie de Vézelay.

And then we arrived at the Stèle de Gibraltar. A special moment when walking some of the classic French chemin. Somehow we missed it in 2016😂. I’m not quite sure to this day how that happened? But today, we made it!

Just when we thought this was special, the military decided to drop in. Literally!

Earlier on the climb, we had seen a couple of French military vehicles pass us. Then I began to see large military transport plane circling in the area.

And the next thing we knew the top of our next climb was the landing point for three flights of French paratroopers! Wow!

We had a quick lunch standing in the shade of a house, and then we started our climb. Annemarie and I climb at different paces so I usually wait for her at the top. That’s not to say that Annemarie is not a very strong climber, because she is. It’s just that we have different climbing styles. We’ve learned to deal with this over the years, and it works nicely for us.

We head further south tomorrow.

Fortunately, the military were there when they were because a pilgrim collapsed at the top of the climb. When I arrived, their medical team was looking after him and he was conscious. All good news.

It was fun to watch the French Pilgrims, the guys, climb to the top and then throw their packs on the ground, and make a huge declaration about their climbed the top as they pulled their shirts off. The women simply climbed up quietly and said nothing, as did these two Canadians.😇

The polite Canucks! Note that my shirt is still on😊

The descent was beautiful, but basically uneventful.

We stopped in town before walking the last kilometre out to our gîte where we are just setting up the table for a communal dinner outside. Should be a fun evening with all those French-speaking Le Puy walkers, and two English-speaking Canadians. What could go wrong?

However, with all that happened today, the truly big story of the stage was that I have achieved my quest for this lovely walk. My granddaughter Ciara had only one request for her PaG. Find her a pink piggy! Voila!!

A nice big, fat pink piggy! This pilgrim has earned his beer tonight, and he will sleep well knowing that he has fulfilled his promise.

And that’s about it from here. One more stage will take us to the completion of the Vézelay! Good weather is again expected and I will update our plans after tomorrow’s stage. Where did all these people come from???

Bon Chemin!

Geoff🐷🐷🐷🐷❤️