Another perfect walking day. Low 20s cool breeze.
Interesting start to today. Left the three Belgium hikers to follow the marked trail but I decided to take a shortcut across country following farm tracks. Which was great for a little while and would be at least one or two kilometers shorter. Unfortunately two or three kilometers in the farm track ends up being a farm track that hasn’t been used in donkey’s years. Long grass and hard going.
Ended up coming out in a farmer’s backyard, fortunately the dogs were locked up inside. Not the first time I’ve come to a private entrance gate on the wrong side! How to turn a walk into more of an adventure.
More canal walking and a couple of old towns and churches. Had a proper lunch today hamburger and chips at Saint-Amand-Montrond. A big town.
Had a private tour of the very old church here in Bouzais Eglise Saint Roch. 14th century church. The wood beams framing the door looks to be from the 11th century. A wooden belfry contains a bell dated 1521 and bearing an invocation to Saint Barbara. We went to the mans house and in what looked a shed as old as the church there was an amazing train set. Very unexpected.
The 3 Belgians are here at the very small pilgrim refuge as well and a Frenchman I have met twice before. I walked 3km less than them but still arrived last so have a top bunk no power point or light. The cost of having a long stop for hamburger and chips.
Body starting to adapt now. Ligaments in chest and back now don’t hurt until 20 km. Adapting to weight of backpack every day. Nor did my feet hurt today. Hips and associated bursars did not hurt at all today either! Have a couple of recalcitrant toes with pressure blisters to deal with. Knee pain now mild. So all in all everything is going as expected.
Mosquitoes buzzing around my ears tonight. à bientôt.
#retirementontour