St Guilhem-Le-desert and more

First happy birthday to the bravest and strongest hiker any guy ever walked dangerous roads in the rain with!!!

Next, have to spell it right... Guilhem, not Guilliam as I have been.  Lovely medieval town that ranks right up with Mont St Michel, just not as spectacular. 1200  years old dating from Guilhem who was Charlemagne's cousin and ally in war.  Lovely, peaceful church open for prayer and a quiet evening mass attended by 6, including us...just what we needed before the mountains starting tomorrow. Allegedly 5-6 days of good weather ahead but not enough to get all the way thru the mountains...so may have to bus part.

Stupid things in the rain, continued...

So, the longer we walked from Aniane towards St Gulliame-Le-Desert, the harder it rained.  And the deeper the puddles in the road became; and the swifter the rivulets running down the hills and across the roads ran, etc, etc, you get the idea.  It was really bad. And when the trail followed this narrow two lane mountain road, with the mountain on one side and the river gorge on the other, it got downright dangerous.  But the Gendarmes passed us twice and and didn't pick us up so guess the French see risk-takers differently.  Anyway, we got there, drenched, in 3 hours walking.  All's well that ends well- we guess!!!

Even Smart People Do Stupid Things...

In Spain we walked in the rain. Lots of rain...once for 9 straight days without sun. So when it rained today and we had only a short 8km to walk, we thought, "n'est pas un problem" in the local lingo. We've done it all before, right? How bad could it be? Even when the proprietor at our hotel offered to drive us to the next town for free, we thought, "we can do this...no need to miss out on the walk for a little rain, right?" Well, dumb, dumb, dumb.  More in next entry... Meanwhile see the pix... It gets worse...

Day 8 - Into the Rhythym

LWalking the Way is like most other endeavors- it has it's own rhythym which you can only find by experience. We had one pace with our companions; now , after two days, we are finding another.  Late start on Sunday as we remained in Montanard to attend 11am mass - the only one available in several towns. The local people were quite welcoming when we appeared with backpacks and hiking sticks, although there really are not many walkers on the Chemin de Arles compared with Spain.  Pix of the route.

Gravels to Montarnaud

Departed Montpellier by bus and tram and started walking at Grabels after 11am.  We hate walking through city suburbs. Not very far (12k) but the most difficult terrain we have seen yet.  Did the 12k in 4 hrs.  Notwithstanding the detours, rain and rest day, I estimate we have walked about 89k. Not bad for a first week.  Weather is supposed tone bad for 3 days this week; we'll see. Pix are the rocky path and view over Montarnaud from our door.

Montpellier on our own

Today we separate from Marie & Peter, our Swedish walking companions for the past week (and from the Camino last year) who return home.  We will stay in Montpellier an extra day, wash clothes, and enjoy this old university town that is surrounded by modern suburbs.  On Saturday back to the trail West.

Lunel and beyond

Wednesday am we taxied to Lunel in the rain and Thursday we did a bit of cross country navigation to rejoin the Camino / Chemin Arles.  Construction of a new train line and highway wiped out the marked trail later in the day but between the four of us we found our way at 4 pm to Vendargues, which was sort of dead with no close hotel after close to 20 km walking on rough land. So we bussed 13 km to Montpellier, which had a convention in town and no hotel rooms.  It's a pilgrimage, right? Well, our resourceful Swede, Peter, found affordable rooms close in town and we ended the (very) long day with dinner and drinks in Montpellier's wonderful old city .  More on that next entry.