Le Presbytere where we have spent the night is really something special. We spent the night camped in the garden, but after a slow breakfast, (the boys almost need to be forcibly removed from a buffet) our hostess Marinette gives us a tour of the incredible building. When we finally get going the ground is flat and easy, not sure if it’s more our fitness or the terrain but it means the days are a little less of a challenge for most of us at least. Tom isn’t as interested at walking as he only wants to walk on tricky little singletrack trails which there are none of today, so I carry him the whole way. Lucky guy.
There’s a popular snack bar 8 kilometres in called La Pacha Mama that we’re heading for, en route we stumble over a Louisiana Red Swamp Crawfish up on the track heading in the opposite direction, he’s seemingly miles from home and garners attention from passing pilgrims. Amongst them we hear the unmistakeable Aussie accent, they also pick up on ours. Dave and Carol from Australia, we walk on and talk then end up sitting and sharing lunch together, it’s great for both of us to speak English easily for a change. We share our antipodean Camino experiences, they also started at Le Puy but are making much better time than us. They take off at high speed after lunch as we slowly get our crew moving again, I suspect their fitness levels are through the roof.
One continuous thing that seems to follow us every day is the military jets training overhead. It’s always dramatic as they carve about. Makes you reconsider career goals and perhaps I could’ve have been a Top Gun contender. Pretty sure I could’ve dropped Maverick.
Hot and dry is the watchword as we drag our way into Aire, the campground is next to the largest bullfighting ring yet. We are making good ground towards St Jean.
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