Day 5, Stage 3: Mirepoix, ☔️💨🌧️⛅️ 17°

Great Stage!

Today I decided to write my blog while I was walking. I’ve done bits and pieces of this over the years, but I thought I might dictate the whole thing, edit it and then enter it into this blog format. Let’s see how this works out. It was a bit challenging in the weather conditions, but I was determined!

You might recall the French couple (Cristian and Veronique) with the large packs that I met yesterday. Well they did eventually make it to where I was staying last night some 4 1/2 hours after I arrived. It was lovely to have some company at dinner as it would’ve been pretty weird eating by myself with the nun(s) present.😅 Using our minimalist language skills and a translator app, we managed to have a quite nice dinner together. They’re a nice couple from Toulouse, so no jet lag for them! They told me they are carrying their camping gear because they are worried they might not be able to get a bed. Given the complete lack of other walkers I really don’t think they need their camping gear. If it was me, I would leave it someplace along the way and pick it up again on my way home to Toulouse. You might recall Hil mailed a bunch of her stuff home to the Netherlands last year.

They plan to walk the 26–27 km tomorrow that I’m going to walk. It will be interesting to see if they stay in the same Gite etapa that I’m planning to stop at.

I was awake very early this morning after a poor sleep. The mattresses are those foam ones covered in heavy rubber plastic. So they just make noise all night and they aren’t very comfortable. On top of that the blanket I had on top of my silk liner was lovely except it just kept sliding off! So it was one of those nights. For me these are very common nights on the Camino. I’m not quite sure how the sleep monitoring function on my Garmin watch is going to handle my sleep pattern these next 6 weeks? This morning it’s simple message was that I need a lot more sleep and that I should listen to my body. Right.🙄😅

The three of us were up and moving before 6:30 this morning because  breakfast was at seven and we had our gear to pack up. Cristian told me it wasn’t going to rain today. I was looking out the window and I said, hmmm, well it’s raining now”. He reacted incredulously, and we laughed when he said the weather is not listening to my app!

At breakfast it was a typical French breakfast with fresh cut French bread, tea/coffee and condiments to put on the bread. Amazingly there was peanut butter! Neither Veronique or Cristian like peanut butter, so I helped myself with a big smile on my face!😅 Of course they didn’t really understand not having been raised from birth on the brown stuff. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever seen good peanut butter in a communal setting. 

I set off ahead of my bunk mates and into the rain at about 7:45. The rain is just a part of the walking practice, but I still figure I’m ahead with two days of sun and one day of rain so far! 

Initially started out on a road with some high winds and blowing rain.

Eventually this changed to walking on trails with very high grass heavy with moisture.

Walking in this sort of thing on a sunny day is very pleasant. On a rainy day, not so much. I ended up with grass seed all over my rain pants from my waist to my toes. However, I had to find out if these new boots are waterproof and this is a good way to determine this. That long waist high grass sure slows you down, but in the end it’s all fun! For the record, I was in tall wet grass, mud, puddles and stuff in between, and my boots stayed reasonably dry. A big win!

By the time I reached Hounoux at about the 8 km mark, the clouds suddenly started to lift and with it the rain stopped. 

Entering Hounoux it didn’t look very nice for a place you’d really want to call home, but by the time I’d crossed the little village, I’d come to see that there was indeed a real spirit of life here. A definite community. There was interesting art from Italy all over the place which I found a bit odd, but hey, what ever works!

And there’s a cute little church with two gorgeous bells on the flat steeple. 

The walk today was mostly a long series of paths. It was really beautiful! The type of walking I dream about. Even the weather couldn’t hope to bring me down. And when the sun came out, I was totally in my happy place. 

How could you not be with little pussycats on the trail, birds making beautiful calling sounds . I even heard my favourite cuckoo bird. That by itself almost made my day. 

I just came by a little church with three beautiful bells. I couldn’t get a picture from the front because there was a fellow there on his lawnmower tractor cutting the grass and he was pretty focussed on that.

A little further along, I met a farmer who I thanked for allowing me to cross his property. He was very interested to hear where I was from, and very gracious in looking after the pilgrim route. He said that the winds the other day had brought down a tree across the path and that he’d cut a little path around it for those of us walking because it was too difficult to go under it. Now that I see it though I think I could probably get under it?😅

The views from his place were pretty magnificent!

Today I moved generally higher into the northern slopes of the Pyrenees. Very evident by the number of oak trees that are present. Gone are the vineyards of the last two days, but I expected that given the altitude change. Today I climbed over 500 m vertical (1,650’) and in spite of my poor sleep I was definitely stronger than yesterday. Phew!

Today the trail is much better marked. And without some of the markers it would be almost impossible to sort out certain areas of this route. So hats off and a thank you to those people that spend a lot of volunteer hours doing this sort of thing. It’s done all over Europe by associations responsible for the various walking routes. A huge service to those of us that love to walk these trails. 

Later, after the long last climb, the sun comes out again and with it come the flies. And they’re in your face, your ears and all over the place, but only until I get out of the long deep forest. It was the same yesterday in some places. This too shall pass. 

The sun also brings out a wonderful array of different coloured tiny butterflies. I’ve seen blue ones and all sorts of colours. They’re hard to photograph because they take off just as I come up to them. They feel the vibrations from my feet and they lift off. But they are certainly fun to watch. My grandchildren would love this because there’s literally hundreds of these little butterflies. Great pollinators!

I’m now on hard roads 2 km out and doing pretty good for a third stage.

And then I was in. In my room of which I’m again the only occupant. Word must’ve gotten out that there’s this antisocial Canadian walking!

This is what sits outside my window…

And now it’s time to go exploring. I have to bring my laundry in first in case it rains, but then I’m going to go have a look around with my finest clothes on and see if I can’t find a good meal. If I do, I promise to post pictures tomorrow. Another longer stage ahead, and my host advises me that there is a really good bakery that opens at 6 o’clock where I can get breakfast and actually sit down. So that’ll be my first stop. Already looking forward to that!

Geoff! 🍷