Category: Arles

Trail Blazers ~ June 4, 2016

  • Saturday, June 4, 2016
  • Day 35, Day 32 (Camino)
  • Estialescq
  • Distance: 14 1/2 miles (10% tarmac) 465 total miles
  • Ascent 2,007 feet and descent 1,685 feet
  • Time: 7 1:2 hours
  • Weather: 65-78 degrees, overcast

“Trail Blazers,” volunteers who enhance the markings along The Way by attaching red and white candy-cane stripped flagging tape to trees.

They kindly gave me “first-hand” information how to stage the coming days. It’s the Camino. Help is there.

  1. Towards Estialescq
  2. Towards Estialescq
  3. Towards Estialescq

Outer ~ June 4, 2016

  • Saturday, June 4, 2016
  • Day 35, Day 32 (Camino)
  • Estialescq
  • Distance: 14 1/2 miles (10% tarmac) 465 total miles
  • Ascent 2,007 feet and descent 1,685 feet
  • Time: 7 1:2 hours
  • Weather: 65-78 degrees, overcast

Outer stairs then and now.

Outer feet now takin’ a break.

I’m sporting my first minor, minor blister. The warmer socks I wore yesterday are banned!

  1. Leaving Lescar
  2. Leaving Lescar
  3. Towards Estialescq – White bandages are for protection, not injuries.

Immortalized ~ June 3, 2016

  • Friday, June 3, 2016
  • Day 34 (Day 31 Camino)
  • Lescar
  • Distance: 22 miles (40% tarmac) 450 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 1,341 feet and descent 1,571 feet
  • Time: 10 hours!
  • Weather: 65-78 degrees, Overcast. Feet stayed dry😻

Immortalized in art.  

  1. Lescar – C12th mosaic of hunting scene. Archer with a wooden leg of the type fitted by Moorish surgeons and indicated to portray stumbling in the faith.
  2. Lescar – Saint Francis of Assisi
  3. Lescar – Saint Jacques of Compostelle

Tummy and Soul ~ June 3, 2016

  • Friday, June 3, 2016
  • Day 34 (Day 31 Camino)
  • Lescar
  • Distance: 22 miles (40% tarmac) 450 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 1,341 feet and descent 1,571 feet
  • Time: 10 hours!
  • Weather: 65-78 degrees, Overcast. Feet stayed dry😻

Picnic spot for the tummy and soul.

  1. Towards Lescar – Russe (Russian Moch Merange Buttercream is a favorite), Morlaàs
  2. Towards Lescar – Church of Sainte-Foy, Morlaàs
  3. Towards Lescar – Church of Sainte-Foy, Morlaàs

Lamb Chops ~ June 3, 2016

  • Friday, June 3, 2016
  • Day 34 (Day 31 Camino)
  • Lescar
  • Distance: 22 miles (40% tarmac) 450 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 1,341 feet and descent 1,571 feet
  • Time: 10 hours!
  • Weather: 65-78 degrees, Overcast. Feet stayed dry😻

Lamb chops…

Unlike the uniform spacing of pearls on a necklace, the spacing between the Gîtes is not uniform. There can be huge gaps between Gîtes. Today I walk either 9 miles or 22 miles; hence, the long miles for today.

  1. Towards Lescar
  2. Towards Lescar
  3. Towards Lescar

Make Up Your Mind ~ June 2, 2016

  • Thursday, June 2, 2016
  • Day 33, (Day 30 Camino)
  • Anoye
  • Distance: 14 1/2 miles (10% tarmac) 428 1/2 total miles
  • Ascent 1,806 feet and descent 1,585 feet
  • Time: 7 1/2 hours
  • Weather: 60-68 degrees, Cloudy. Misty rain

Make up your mind…rain or no rain. I’m constantly putting my rain jacket on and off.

Water hangs in the air. Everything is wet. Why do I put on my precious pair of dry socks in the morning only to have them wet after minutes of walking?

  1. Towards Anoye
  2. Towards Anoye
  3. Towards Anoye

A Pilgrim ~ June 1, 2016

  • Wednesday, June 1, 2016
  • Day 32 (Day 29 Camino)
  • Maubourguet
  • Distance: 11 miles (80% tarmac) 414 total miles
  • Ascent 1,027 feet and descent 970 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 60-70 degrees, Cloudy. 16 mph wind

To be a pilgrim is to be defined. People have walked The Way for thousands of years and for thousands of years people have supported pilgrims.

I stopped at a pharmacy looking for gel inserts for my shoes (still no blisters😻). I was told the Super U (Target) four miles away had them. A non-English speaking French lady offered to drive me. She first took the time to help me find my Gîte to deposit my backpack, drove me to Super U to pick up items for herself and insoles for me, and then drove me back to the Gîte. Once there, she got out of her car to give me a proper good-bye kissing both cheeks and wished me ,”Bon Marchi” (Good walk). I was teary eyed.

The Camino provides. Ask any pilgrim.

  1. Towards Maubourguet
  2. Towards Maubourguet
  3. Maubourguet

“By” ~ June 1, 2016

  • Wednesday, June 1, 2016
  • Day 32 (Day 29 Camino)
  • Maubourguet
  • Distance: 11 miles (80% tarmac) 414 total miles
  • Ascent 1,027 feet and descent 970 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 60-70 degrees, Cloudy. 16 mph wind

You’ve got to be kidding! The signs take me to the water’s edge and I’m sinking in mud. I can see the painted sign on the tree across the stream.

Think…Re-read guide. “Cross wooded stream by flat concrete telegraph pole .”

“By” did not mean beside. “By” meant using.

“Flat” did not mean non-circular. “Flat” meant not standing.

  1. Towards Maubourguet
  2. Towards Maubourguet
  3. Towards Maubourguet

But Why? ~ June 1, 2016

  • Wednesday, June 1, 2016
  • Day 32 (Day 29 Camino)
  • Maubourguet
  • Distance: 11 miles (80% tarmac) 414 total miles
  • Ascent 1,027 feet and descent 970 feet
  • Time: 7 hours
  • Weather: 60-70 degrees, Cloudy. 16 mph wind

Okay, I get it. We walk from church-to-church.

But, why are churches always at the top of a hill?

  1. Towards Maubourguet – C15th church with 35 meter spire
  2. Towards Maubourguet – C15th church with 35 meter spire
  3. Maubourguet – Church of Saint-Martin