Travelling deep into the bottom of France there are not many towns with shops to pass through so we have to spend a day self supported.
Luckily, Simone at Gite Bohoteguia has a pretty darn good epicerie for us to load up at. She had a good thing going there, really feels like a place where they care about the people staying with them, her and her husband Manu work hard, just genuinely good people. They’ve also walked their own Caminos, including a stretch through winter, the photos in a metre of snow look amazing but at this stage I’m glad the heat is our major challenge. We loved staying there, they boys spent all afternoon playing with their son, Andonie. It’s hard to leave.
It’s a hot day already as we head up into Aroue having stayed just outside it. There’s not much in the town, hearing we’re heading for Ostabat, Simone gave us some advice on a little opportunity to make the day shorter, we happily take it. There are two variants on this stage and without using them it would be around 26 kilometres to Ostabat which is a little out of our range. Nobody feels guilty bringing that down to 21 or so.
On back roads for most of the morning but they are quiet so the walking is nice. You can feel that we are deep in Basque country now, the names are all different and the food has changed a bit. Feels a bit more Iberian I guess. Hard to describe. Tom spends the day on my back, he has no interest in roads.
Taking the escargot variant we head into Uhart Mixe to stop for lunch which is a pretty little town (with no shop) but has a good shaded seat to avoid the sun.
Bit more offroady into Ostabat where we are camping, Simone has called ahead and as the gites have no space for tents the town has a little paddock on the edge where we can set up for no cost, plus communal showers and toilets available in the town for pilgrims. Happy days.
Ostabat sits hard up against the foothills of the Pyrenees, tomorrow it’s a 21 km walk up the valley to St Jean Pied de Port and the end of the Via Podiensis. It feels like we are completing something but the reality is we are only half way through to Santiago. One more day in France.
Next | Camino day 46 – Ostabat-Asme to St Jean Pied de Port
Previous | Camino day 44 – Navarrenx to Aroue