Day 19: Chatelus to Pont de Dagnon Campsite.

I have to add a comment. Today, the 19th of August is the anniversary of Dieppe, which occurred August 1942. Over 900 Canadian soldiers killed and a few thousand captured. Total disaster. A typical brit f@#$up.

https://youtu.be/2uXWBR_Ht2Y

Decided to shorten the walk today. Instead of going to St Leonard be Noblat at 29 kilometers I decided to shorten it to 16 and stay at a campground by a river situated in this river valley, near a beautiful bridge among the lush almost tropical like vegetation. As I get further south I am told that the temperatures will remain warm and I will begin to see sub tropical like vegetation – mini palms perhaps. Also, this campsite is full of children laughing and playing and making all kinds of noise. Nice! Also, I have my own mini chalet, a shoe box really, but very clean and cool inside. It teminds me of my own youth and summers spent up at Georgian Bay. Magical memories.

Samuel cooked dinner last night – yup, PASTA again. Pasta seems to be a staple for us pilgrims or they all come from Italy. Actually, Samuel is a bit of chef and we were able to buy some ingrediants at the local Auberge, run by a middle age women in desperate need of dental work. But she was nice. The Auberge catered to the whole town. It was the town’s gathering, meeting place, especially in the summer months. And then, this woman appears out of  nowhere to entertain us. At first I thiught she was the village idiot ( I know, not kind) but she turned out to be a professional jester. We would call them buskers in Canada.

Actually, she was very jovial and entertaining. Notice the red nose.

Back to Samuel. Interesting fellow with just a few quirks. As I mentioned a few days ago he preferred to sleep away from the main dormatory and sleep by the heads (toilets). This time his place of  choice was in the kitchen by the fridge. I guesss he wanted to be close to the food for a midnight snack. He was very philosophical in his outlook on life. When I  entioned Michel and Yannick to him his response was that this  condition was  common  because this generation was not used to failures or hardship. Everyone gets the prize according to him. I could not really disagree with him. Samuel could be very intimidating but once you scratch the surface you find a very kind and thoughful human being. Samuel would not allow me to take his picture though. No problem. I always ask first.

I got underway today at 0645. Nice! Just me and the world….and the cows. Not a bad a trek as the last few days. Some hills but not too bad really. Sunshine and  cool  temperatures and lots a tree tunnels. For those of you not familiar with this term a tree tunnel is an area of road covered by a canopy of tree branches and leaves. They resemble a dark tunnel and provide the walker with a cool oasis from the heat of the sun:

Again, beautiful scenery. I arrived at the campsite at 1030. Probably the earliest stop yet. But I welcome it as it lets me recharge the batteries.

This post will be out early. Still hoping for some comments. Would love to hear from you. I will respond.

Why I hate my IPad? When I want to s@y so eth8 glime this tis is 2hT APPE@RS. SO IT takes me lo nger to cirrect th mistakes as to type th post. Translation? “ When I want to say something like this this is what appears. So it takes me longer to correct these mistakes then to actually develop and type the post.” Sucks!

That’s all she wrote.

Ramblin Man – that is what I am. The Pilgrim’s theme song.