Day 8: Stage 6: Saint Girons, 32 km, ☀️😎, 28°

It’s A Holiday? Really?

I left early and have arrived early. I’m sitting inside one of those dingy, dark bars where there are tv’s on the walls playing the horse races and people are drinking, smoking and actually watching the races! These are the regulars and the only person missing is Norm. I’m probably sitting in his seat and I’m going to hear about it when he arrives!😬

Why am I in this bar? Well, as I said, I arrived early and I can’t get into my Airbnb until 15:00. That’s in 90 minutes when my host gets off work. And everyone in France knew it was a holiday except me!😂 It’s Ascension Day and almost everything is closed down. Those Catholics! Sheesh!

I’m actually pleased that this bar is open. I’ve sat in much worse places nursing a drink than this bar. Soon I’ll finish my Coke and order a beer so that I can fit in a bit better. I might even cheer the race results, and I might even have new friends!🙃

It’s been a marvellous day of walking.

What an amazing start to my day! I had a long stage planned, and I was up before six for my breakfast and to get myself out the door in decent time. I walked through the sleepy town as the sunrise happened.

Not far down the road I came to the Le Mas de-d’Azil Grotto. The formation of this grotto goes back thousands of years and human occupation apparently predates the famous cave drawings in the Grotto Chauvet-Pont d’Arc, also in southern France. Those drawings have been dated to 34,000 bc. 

There’s so much limestone in this area. AM and I saw something similar to this not so far from here when we walked the Arles chemin in 2018; a river coming out the side of a mountain in that instance deep in a canyon. If you were following our Camino For Alzheimer you might remember. This time the river was going straight through the mountain, and so was I!

I had been looking forward to this experience all winter.

Being there before 7:00 meant that I didn’t have to share my passage through the mountain. It was amazing! Enjoy the photos!

And then I was out. It’s hard to grasp the scale of this grotto from photographs. I was watching the birds nesting far across the cavern and on the walls above me. This grotto was occupied by ancient man, and has continued to be an important feature in this area for many thousands of years.

So after this amazing start to the morning, the rest of the day paled by comparison. That said, it was a great day of walking!

I can’t quite give the same time to the blog today because I have to try and find some food after getting into my place. Or, I’m going to be eating chocolate and drinking rehydration water for dinner tonight!😵‍💫

I passed through a couple of interesting little villages today.

After walking on for a while, I caught up to two other people! A young man named Giovanni and his mother Barbara who are from Switzerland.

Giovanni started walking from his home in Switzerland, which is on the southern Italian influenced part of the country. Hence his name that he took from his grandfather. His mother flew to join him for a week. His father is going to fly in to walk with him also for a week. They were very nice and I enjoyed the distraction as we climbed up yet another hill. He was very interested in the US political mess and I tried my best to help him sort it all out. At only 20 he has much to learn, and he’s trying to figure it all out. His mother is a medical professional, as is his father. He’s trying to decide what to do with himself education wise. He’s walking through to the Norte and then along the coast to Santiago, a very popular add on these days after first crossing the various French Chemin. A good way to miss the ever busy Camino Frances. I sort of sense that this is his coming of age experience, a gap year if you like. He seems to be carrying a lot of stuff and I think he’s camping as he goes. Very nice people, and I hope our paths cross again.

And then I arrived in town, and in the bar. My host was really great and had the apartment open as promised. I found out that there were two grocery stores 3 km out along the highway that would be open. Knowing that my food options in my pack would’ve carried me through to tomorrow, power in adequate, I decided to take the hike in the heat. It allowed me to see some of the town.

However, as sometimes occurs on these walks, little miracles happen.

The bakery was open. Not only did it have bread, but also salads, sandwiches and amazing desserts! I bought a little of each, and I now have adequate food for my dinner tonight and for my breakfast tomorrow. As the saying goes, the Camino provides,  and I did tonight!

So now I’m set. In a few minutes, I’m gonna have that dinner after I finish my first beer and the potato chips I carried in my pack all day, leftover from last night. Nothing but the finest foods on this Camino!

Tomorrow is another 30 km day. I have arranged good accommodation at the bottom of the major climb on this route. They will also provide me meals as the hotel has a restaurant. It didn’t exactly come cheap, but the options weren’t very good in that area. I want to get across the climb and down the other side in a single day. Tomorrow will be over 30° and Saturday will also be hot, but in the afternoon thunderstorms and rain are forecast as this mini heat wave apparently breaks. I want to be on the other side of that mountain when it does.

Time now for dinner and a relaxing evening as it’s only 18:00.

Bon Chemin!

Geoff🍻❤️

(511 m, 1670’ vertical today)