Day 8: Le Veaurdre to Ainay le Casteau

Woke up with a full stomach, a good night,s sleep and clean underwear. Life was good

Did 34 kilometers today but it did not start out very well. Got up and left at 0545, first light. Beside my campsite was a main road to my first goal of the day. But it didn,t follow the Compestello guide. So I walked into town, quiet, everyone was still asleep-smart people, and picked up the route. All was good and well directed until I was about at the edge of town.  The Compestello signs all but disappeared. I kept going into the dark and unknown landscape.  I went on for over 6 km and still no signs. Finally, caught among the killer cows and deserted farmhouses I came to a dead end. What to do? You can imagine my concern having walked over 6 km with nothing to show for it.  As much as I hated doing it I decided to return to Le Veaurdre, 6 km back. I was lost and really ticked that I did about 12 km with nothing to show for it. It is an awful feeling.

When I got back I made a command decision. I returned to the main road,  stuck out my thumb and the third car that came my way picked me up and drove me to my first destination – Lurcy Levis-10 km away. So I figured that St James still owed me 2 km. All was well again.

The walk today was grand. The landscape has flattened out somewhat from the Morvan. The hills are less pronounced or steep-thank gawd for that. The temp was about 27C- thank gawd for that. Imagine? About 17 degrees cooler than last Friday,s 44C and still 27 degrees.

Lots of cows out to keep me company. I always lash out with my best cow call but they are not fooled. They just ignore me while munching on their cud, while waiting for the udder hand to drop.  Often I can sense their presence while walking between the hedgerows that separate the fields. They are dairy I believe but I have never seen this shade before-a pale white colour. Sickly! I refer to them as my killer cows. Zombie cows.

I love going past the sheep. They always gather in a gaggle so when I pass them I,ll give them one of my best bahhhhhhhhs. It always works. Startled, they,ll come running over to me out of curiousity only to be let down by this ugly human sheeple. Funny.

Fields look fresh in the early morning light. Most have been plowed. They emit a pale dusty brown colour. Most of the hay fields have been harvested. The odd field of sunflowers appear as do the occasional field of corn. Amazing. Fresh, even in this heat. The trees and the small forests are beginning to show their seasonal colours. I can always tell when the end of summer is near because the leaves begin to show a slight silvery sheen when blowing in the wind.

Thought of Marijke and Ruby all day. Marijke passed 8 months ago today and of course Ruby, our first grandchild, was born on Easter Sunday, 01 April 2018. Ruby will have fun with that birthday all of her life. Lots of jokes.

That,s all she wrote.

Oh yeah, met a German  Pilgrim today from Dusseldorf. We had a coupleof frosty beers together then bade adieu. He was younger than me (64) so I could not keep up. Also, he was doing about 40 klicks today. Good luck Gunther.

 

2 thoughts on “Day 8: Le Veaurdre to Ainay le Casteau”

  1. Hi John, glad to hear the temps have dropped, was 30 here today. Not sure if you are getting Canadian news but Justine has irritated the Saudis now by lecturing them on Feminism so they have kicked out our Ambassador and recalled theirs, also pulled all their students out of our Uni’s and sent them elsewhere. Just heard they were selling off Canadian assets (?) and not buying our wheat, so another great diplomatic blunder – the Media is calling for the US to back us up, completely forgetting that last week they were blasting Trump for being evil and against our milk industry! How soon they forget. Enjoy yourself over there and don’t worry about Canada, we will still be here and maybe the cost of bread will have gone down! If the Saudis cut off the oil to the East then maybe they will wish they had supported the Energy East Pipeline after all.

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