Tag: Hills

Day 41: Penultimate: Sauterre de Bearn to Ostabat

Today’s walk is dedicated to all of those men and women dealing with cancer patients at the BC Cancer Clinic. To all the Nurses and Oncologists who have to deal with this as a career. They are real heroes.

Found out today that we are actually in the Pyrenees, French side. Makes sense as the hills have become sreeper and steeper, higher and higher. Here are a couple of views of hills we had to climb today:

That hill in the distance is typical of the hills we climbed today. One hill was 350 meters high over a distance of 700 meters. Compare that to the Malahat, which rises 352 meters over 8 kilometers. Tough! The actual walk today was 26.8 kilometers, which took us over 7.5 hours – a long day as a result of the hills.

The area around Ostabat is unique in that 3 of the French Pilgrimages meet here: Tours, Vezelay and Le Puy. They all then converge on St Jean Pied de Port before climbing up and over to begin the Camino Frances to Santiago.

The 3 French paths converge at this spot.

The landscape between Sauterre and Ostabat actually reminds me of the Swiss countryside, especially near Zurich. Rich:

Pascal and his favourite companion – our host last evening:

Getting tired now. Tomorrow is day 42 and the end of this journey.

The area around Ostabat also has a Spanish feel to it and there are palm trees here and there. It reminds me a bit of northern California with its Spanish vibe. Accordingly, here is another Eagles classic. One of the best leads around by Don Felder.  Sound and voice synchronization is off a bit. Enjoy:

https://youtu.be/-nmpVYcg23c

 

 

Day 38: Saint Severs to Hagetmau

Today,s walk is dedicated to Ruth. With the support of her husband Ruth has been fighting cancer for a very long time. She has great courage to carry on with this journey.

Left Saint Severs at 0645am. Cool and very humid. Found a Boulanger in the square that was open so I stopped and bought two danishes. Warm, delicious.

Landscape has changed dramatically. From a flat monotonous, monochromatic terrain that was covered in sand – hot,dusty and full of smidgens – to one that is hilly, lush and variable. Gone is the scrub brush. Back to rolling hills, corn fields, meadows and dark green forests. The odd farmhouse breaks the landscape and the usual cacaphony of dogs breaks the morning silence as our presence is smelt and detected by these dogs a mile away.I have to laugh as the residents get their morning wakeup call whenever we pass by. I love to yelp and play with these dogs but then again, there is usually a very high fence separating us.

Why attack dogs? I do n,t know but seeing a lapso apso barking away somehow doesn,t cut it as a guard dog.

A very old eglise.

Saint Giron’s  Crypt-12th Century. Doesn’t look a day over 500 years I think!

My shoes are starting to fall apart. Only a few days left. Hope they can last.

Walking alone today. Pretty fast pace. Covered 16 kilometers in just over 3 hours. Hagetmau is more of a modern town compared to Saint Severs,which is  medieval going back to the stones throw in time.

Jacobin Cloister

Buildings are taking on more and more of a Spanish motife. Terra cota roofs, stucco, iron wrought railings. In fact the square in Hagetmau where I am currently sitting reminds me of old town San Diego rather than some French style city in North America such as Quebec City. I know we are getting closer to Basque country. Will not be long now.

Dutch women returned last night. Just as I was playing Celebration by Kool and the Gang, they walked through the door. They seemed to be more relaxed today than a few days ago. The older one actually smiled and laughed at one of my stupid jokes. Lightening up perhaps? Maybe it is the Camino spirit. One can only hope.

 

This is what I would call a perfect song. Great lyrics, melody. It has the whole range of musical instruments such as strings, acoustic and electric guitars, piano and saxophone. Came out around 1976 and is still great:

https://youtu.be/FcIyqjSA0UM