Since I had no one to wake me up I slept through till 7pm. I got going around 8ish...left the key in Mme Coco's mail box and headed out of town... I bought a silly looking hat at a hardware store in hopes I could use it as a sun hat..the day started a little murky and the grass was still wet..it meant slightly wet shoes but also I got to see all the moisture loving creatures in the grass, like little frogs, snails and of course slugs...meaning i had to also walk carefully...i am also still adjusting to being just me... I can take breaks when ever I want.. and I feel like I am over-indulging ... my pack still feels heavier then before Auch and the second package i sent... so that is another reason for the breaks... it gets hot quick too around ten all the haze was burned off and a lot of my path seemed to be out in the open so the breaks are also linked to cooling back off in shade. (i seem to be spending a lot of time here justifying my breaks as if i am just a wee bit defensive about it...it's not like i will get pilgrim-demerits if i dont turn everything into a forced march, but it is one way to fill a blog page i guess...so bear with me!)... I did not have a super long walk day so I knew I could really take it easy...i passed some smelly duck farms..the poor things looked a little dirty and unhealthy and they do not get ponds... they were all resting under shade, (wise of them) as I came by...but when I tried to take photos they all got up and walked away from the fence in a synchronized swarm... some of them seemed to be hobbling a bit... I felt sorry for em..
unlike the cows and sheep I see here, these guys dont seem to have as happy a life...i had passed a chicken farm the day before...they had their own little forest to explore and various types of plants to dig up etc...they seemed like content chickens..but dont be a food duck..or goose in this area! I passed through a larger town Montesquiou.. it seemed mostly closed for lunch.. I went into a bar and had a coke, there was an old man behind the counter who served me..then an agitated younger man came in with a woman, they were running the restaurant out back... I tried to find out if I could just order a salad..but the man seemed too stressed to want to deal..so I skipped lunch... I continued along the town and found no other businesses, I realized I should have asked for water at the bar... I came across the church and to my surprise it was actually open... the main shrine held a bishop type person.. since this was odd to me I looked around a bit and then discerned that it was saint martin church... it was dark and simple... I was developing a bit of a heat headache so I took my time there in the coolness...the route out of town was decorated nicely for pilgrims...lots of little flowers, but then the path turned into a burning thistle gauntlet... again odd that this was on a walking path... I have sip off pants that can convert to shorts..but I have learned that then I get stickers from various dry weeds in my socks..and if I brush against black berry thorns or burning nettles, this is not so pleasant so I keep the legs on... a french man in just running shorts was coming the other way... internally I wished him luck..
humidity was growing and so was my headache.... a little after four I found the turn off to this camp site I had read about... I found the place and approached the place were I though I saw the people who might be running the place... I saw a pool and was excited about that..i found an older man...who immediately proved difficult.. I got that he was not french he spoke both english and german well... but he would not be direct when I asked him questions... it's like he wanted to get rid of me..this felt less like a camp ground and more like someone's home I had invaded... he sort of showed me where to set up my tent and came back a little later telling me it was a bad spot... I did square that I could swim in the pool and I thought I had sorted a veggie dinner but was not sure... part of me thought I should just keep going at first..but then I got stubborn … I was not going to let this little man dictate my mood just cuz he has some problem... I settled my stuff and went swimming in the cool pool..it helped my head ache a lot... i'd run out of ibuprofen several days ago and had not found an open pharmacy at a time when I could use it... then I did a bit of journaling etc...then I tried to have another go with the man... I wanted to make sure about the dinner and where it was...he totally snapped at me..and I got sarcastic in turn... I truelly believe he is the most unpleasant emotionally reactive person i've met on this trip... and instead of some skillfull means.. I went to my low road..sarcasm... we avoided each other thereafter... another couple came in by bike and camped near me.... I would meet them at dinner... we sat and ate at the same small table...despite the weird energy here the food was actually very good..even though I could tell the wife also was not too pleased with me... because I had set off her irrational man...to my relief...i was not on some weird bad trip here... the couple that I sat with were really cool and sweet...they, like the owners were dutch...they were riding bikes on part of the pilgrims route..although they were not doing pilgrimage..they had started in south Holland and had biked for three weeks here, they were going into Spain where they would meet their son and friends who had cars to bring all their stuff back... they had done these long bike trips at least three times before now and seemed to be pros..they ride about seventy five km's a day..which to me right now seems huge... the woman had a very romantic spiritual bend that was really nice to hear, especially as i felt i had gotten a bit off any sort of high spiritual feelings on this trip and was mostly reduced to just dealing with mere physicality of it all.. she works with very old people both in the protestant and catholic communities in Holland..she says because of the religion the old people are like night and day...in the catholic home the people really seem to enjoy themselves and the last part of their life...where as in the protestant community people are introverted, bitter and often quite mean..i dont know much about dutch protestant religion but the wife confirmed that it is quite austier..she felt any religion that took the joy out of life like that is horrible, she herself is by family origin protestant... she almost seemed to have a pagan heart though... while riding her bike, she contemplated her relationship to nature and all the animals including insects that she shared the planet with, made her feel like she was just a very small part of the larger universe... biking helped her connect with this...she had also seen some ancient caves where early man had left pigment blown hand prints on the wall, so she also tried to imagine what this area was like for the early inhabitants and how different it must have been... I reflected on my last few days, and speculated on how much I had really paid attention to my co-inhabitants like the insects that are now swarming or how long man has settled the land here and how ancient everything really is..and I realized that the days of walking with someone had turned the focus more into social direction and less on the actual path.. I vowed to try and reconnect.. they bought me two beers and talked to me also about America..they had been there several times... in places like Tennessee but also Seattle.. I also asked questions about getting fit for the ride and whether they had to break-themselves-in first... from the sounds of it they did pre-train quite extensively before they took off..so, over all, it seems like it is not too difficult for them... apparently also in Holland, cars actually give them less room when passing, then elsewhere since they are almost too used to bikes...i had thought in Holland the bicyclists ruled supreme... here in France people are very cautious with them and will actually stay behind them until it is absolutely safe to pass... they are also traveling with a gps to help them locate..but primarily they use maps.. we talked till later than I thought..there was still light in the sky..but it was ten... we squared our bill with the woman and said our farewells... apparently they had not met many people to talk to lately so they were really happy to have met me... and I was happy to have found their company as well...i'd gotten comfortable with the repeat group of pilgrims I had met... and wondered if I would make more such connections as the pilgrimage would progress ...and apparently it does continue..good
(ps i feel my english writing is getting more awkward because i have been speaking and thinking german so much)
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