6-11-10 Lodeve to Lunas day 68

6-11-10 Lodeve to Lunas day 68

it was not raining but definitely still gray... even though I got up fairly early again with all the chatting and breakfast time flowed quickly... I tried to get directions to the next place and the host tried to start telling them to me in french, because he was continuing to jank my chain about not speaking the language, even though he spoke both of mine and could totally help me... I got serious with him and told him he had to explain in english or german or else if I got lost it would be on his head...so he did...this section of the Chemin St Jacques is a lot longer than the road...the first 12 or so kms are on the walking trail but then there is an option of walking 6kms on the road which they referred to as dangerous, or continue on the trail which was 12kms... 'real' pilgrims of course take the long way... I on the other hand still building up stamina again and having a late start decided to take the shorter version. I said my good byes and first went to the cathedral because I had been told it was worth it, and of course it was. It had a lot of stain glass which shown in contrast to the dimly lit interior... then on the way out of town I stopped at the bakers for lunch pastries with the usual cheese fillings... then finally I hit the trail..it is surprising how quickly these trails lead into nature. It is actually quite nice that I am finally on the real trail even though the distances between places to overnight are sometimes daunting and finding water is near impossible en-route...but to be out in the country away from car roads is great. The path climbed into hills some where used for grazing sheep.. at times it was various types of thin forest... it looked like it would threaten to rain all day but never did while I was walking. I met a couple walking the other way, but again I was alone on the trail for the rest of it. I am still taking frequent breaks and kms just take longer when going on trails then when on flat roads..so I fretted a bit at my slow progress but I felt good again about being a pilgrim on the path and that I was able to continue towards Santiago. I listened to more dharma talks that a friend had sent me a linked to ...and took photos of the landscapes as I passed..taking frequent short breaks to snack and rest. This time I planned the water well. Also it was overcast for most of the day so I wee bit cooler. I hit the car road portion eventually ...i had to orient though since the walking trail seemed to go in direct opposite from what the street signs were saying the town was... I did not want to make a mistake... and I did not... the car road was winding and as warned had no real bank for me to walk in.. but traffic was low enough that I was okay and I could switch sides periodically when the visibility was not in my favor... so the last six miles were not as stressful as I had been warned. Mostly because I had much worse roads under my belt... I arrived in Lunas around 3;30, there was no real pilgrimage here so only option was hotel or keep walking. I was quite content to stay... I went to the cheapest hotel in town and they had a deal were dinner and breakfast was included for pilgrims for the same price usually just the overnight, so I took the package after I was assured that being vegetarian was no problem. My room looked vaguely exotic with a St Martinique batik on the wall and a satiny pseudo mosquito net over my bed. I also had tv with french channels. I did the post walk grooming thing and rested my feet a bit..it started raining again... I had a bit of time till dinner so I decided to walk around town.. even in the rain it was quite charming, it had a river running through it and pretty bridges linking the two sides.. I had already gone to the tourist office to get my credentials stamped. I went into the little church as well, I ran into the same french couple from the night before. They tried to communicate with me and the man showed me some of his photos from the same walk I had done... since they leave at crack of dawn, he had some cool fog photos from that day. The shop and the post office were closed so I could not buy anything for tomorrows walk..nor could I finally send stuff home... something that has been nagging at me and weighing me down now for a while.. the walking is no longer mostly flat roads... and I finally finally after two months have to admit that if I really want to make it anywhere any time soon, I need less weight on my back... also I don't seem to be gaining speed due to fitness I seem to be slowing down and having more probs with the feet...also pretty much ever experienced pilgrim i've met has recommended I loose several kilos off my back...and as much as it pains me to send things like my paints home.. it is time..but now it is a question of timing as well. Since the post office was closed here, I had to wait through the weekend and find a big enough town with a functioning post office that does not close at noon. So it would be several more days...i returned to my room and waited for dinner... which seemed to be for ever... 7.30... I was quite hungry by the time I could eat... I went to the dining room and the man there made sure I was the pilgrim from room 2, who was vegetarian. There was the french couple again, we would sit together at the same table. My meal included a small carafe of wine which was nice. There was a buffet style salad which was great since I could laden it with protein such as beans which I did not have in a while... and the main course was omlette.. mine had mushrooms..thier's had meat. Of course despite language barrier we tried to communicate. The woman had taken some spanish classes so would try to speak spanish to me at times...with not much greater success..since i dont remember much from my two semesters of spanish a cillion years ago. but some things did leak in... they had several pins from other times that they had walked the Camino they explained which they got where. They tried to explain the next days terrain to me.. .i would be climbing in altitude throughout the day the path would be mostly wide road through forest and there were five peaks and flat areas which I could use as markers of progress. They had a son in law who traveled a lot including Chicago. I guess he had brought back some Jack Daniels which the woman quite enjoyed. I had to laugh since they both were very sweet and even had an innocent air to them, so imagining her with a hard drink like that was funny... They were both very curious about Maine... she apparently read a lot of Steven King.. and I guess there is some residual french still in that region.. they are convinced that the energy of the people in Maine is like that of the french people based on his books.. I guess there is also some connection with the immigrant populations that settled there and in Quebec... I would not have thought that Maine would be a tourist destination for french people.. they had asked what it was like for me to be alone, was it hard on moral? I said actually I was fine, I had good days and sometimes bad but not demoralized... after I tried to transmit how kind and friendly everyone in France had been to me. They assured me, that in France people actually were a little cool about pilgrims, I would see that in Spain people were even nicer and even more supportive of pilgrims... it seems as I travel through each country..the momentum of local pilgrim support will grow... in a way I cant imagine people being even more giving...but it is encouraging to hear that things will get even easier... of course this type of communication where there is little common language is a bit exhausting and soon we were each off to bed... they were going to walk 30kms the next day and plan to leave by six am... It is probably a good idea now to start getting up that early especially since I am still slow but I am not ready yet... I went to my room and dinked around a bit and then to bed by ten... sleep okay including the weird random wake ups...