After a good and cozy breakfast with Menno and Jet I said goodbye to them. An excellent lunch was put in my hand.
In the meantime Gonnie and Niek, who live several tens of kilometers from here, arrived. Gonnie and I walked and talked all day together. “Lunch” in a bus house full of cobwebs. The last hour of our hike, when Niek came walking towards us, it started raining. The result was dipping and dredging through the wet mud paths. Along the way, the camera did not work, so unfortunately few pictures of this hike. Gonnie would mail a few pictures, but the question is again whether I’ll have wifi the next days. In the afternoon we arrived at Tina’s B & B. Tina was from Wales. While I took care of the horse Niek and Gonnie did some shopping for me. After having installed I immediately started one of the main activities of the day, viz. The search for and call for shelters. Couldn’t find anything, either an answering machine, or closed. And then suddenly the phone did not work anymore. Panic because then I can’t book anything anyway. Meanwhile Gonnie and Niek had arrived with a box of supplies. During the tea we opened the mutual cellphones. Their French handy chip was smaller than the chip of my handy. So it did not work in my handy. A lot of fuzzing with those phones. Meanwhile, time passed. And since I want to make 30 km tomorrow to the refuge Pelerin municipal of the village Savignac, I was annoyed with all the time wasted on that phone. To make a reservation in Savignac one should call the town hall. I did. The lady at the telephone laughed. Well I prefer the laughing over groning persons. All right she said, but tomorrow I expect you here in the town hall to pick up the key of the refuge before 3 p.m. Wow hey, Then I’ll have to get up real early, so going to bed tonight very early too. And I still have to search for reservations for Saturday night. For Sunday I fortunately arranged something in a little chateau, an address I got from colleague Marietje. So tomorrow morning we’ll have to leave in the dark. I won’t be able to see the marks of the pilgrimage route. But I have no choice. Basta! Gonnie and Niek offered me all kinds of help, eg. To pick up the key at the town hall, if I would not make it before 3 p.m. etc.
After a few test calls to my Sonja and a few children, that stupid cell phone proved to work very well, only I sometimes had to move a meter or so aside, due to poor network coverage. Quite a relief. Now I still want to make the reservation for Saturday. Desperately I called Lilian, my sister-in-law, who lives in France, asking if she wanted to help looking for sleep addresses. Lil proved to be a real madre de perpetua secursa.
I am very grateful to all the people who help me , because without them I could impossibly accomplish this enterprise. Daily there are moments that I think, stop the nonsense, especially if everything goes wrong again, like now, not finding shelter for tomorrow. The walk is nothing. It’s the hopeless infrastructure that is killing me. The animals are happy and well again, I feel physically fine. But fun is different. This is a survival trip, a psychological war of attrition, but also with moments of triumph. Ha, ha, stay positive. Sweet dreams.
Gonnie and Niek at the start of the day
Gonnie and Niek at the end of day at Welsh Tina’s B & B
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