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I'm sitting in the park in Mauléon-Licharre that has a WiFi hotspot, ready to start my day which I hope will be a short one. I'm going to try and do two easy days to get ready for two longer days ahead. It's sunny this morning, but cool. So we'll see. I'm going to the local church for morning prayers, and then see what the day brings. Wanted to send a note as the next few days might only have small towns and no WiFi. We'll see of course. Till the next hotspot..
Well it's evening and plans didn't quite work out, and isn't that a surprise. Basically I just changed my mind and went on. I got to the place that was supposed to have a gite by 10:30 this morning and thought it's too early to stop, and the signs were indicating that it's only 3 hours to Saint-Just-Ibarre, where I needed to get to. Ok, maybe they said 3 hours and 40 minutes, but who reads those details. And it neglected to say, or I couldn't read the French, that it was up over a mountain pass, over 549 meters high. Needless to say, trudging up that hill for more than an hour, was a little tiring. However the descent was worse on my feet, as it was a steep cow path, literally, that they had us coming down. I just had to take it slow and easy. And of course I made it, tired but fine. Had the name of a lady here in town that I presumed ran the pilgrim's hostel, however it seems that her home is the guesthouse. I've had a shower and she is preparing dinner as there is no restaurant, or grocery store in town. Seems as if many of these small towns here are in the same shape as Chamois.
I walked through sheep country today. There had been sheep before, but always cows too, this was definitely sheep country, they were everywhere, and big flocks. By the way, many of the cows here still wear cow bells, such melodies as one walks through cow pastures.
And French trains do not blast their horns as they go through every village or crossing. The things that I'm learning!
