Pam and I both had the weirdest dream last night. We were in a fancy tea house, the kind that’s expensive and classy. We found out how much it was going to cost and decided to just have oreos and olives instead. (Weird dreams are a sign it’s time to get out of the tent)
We are officially 125 miles into the GR10 according to our guidebook. According to our tracker, we have a few miles more than that but that is because of taking a couple of longer alternates, a few wrong turns, some intentional backtracking, and a few side trips. We are taking longer than we thought we would, but we have done 6 days of suggested itinerary in the last 7 days. We are getting stronger (and less whiney) as we go. We might finish by the end of August as planned but there won’t be time to visit Barcelona until after the GR20 is complete.
We slept until it got too hot in the tent. Because it’s a holiday weekend, our choice of spots was limited (if we wanted flat). There was a rush of people leaving this morning so we will move the tent to a better spot under the trees.
Today is pure relaxation day–and detoxification (of clothes and bodies). As soon as we got moving, we headed to the washing machine so our clothes would be dry by early afternoon (clothes would be nice in Lescun when we go back).
While we were eating our breakfast, James walked by to buy a couple of beers. He, Kinte, and Andre are going to walk together for a while this morning until he splits off to go to the GR11. It sucked, but we said our goodbyes. Andre has a tight schedule and can’t take any days off, so unless we put rockets in our butts, we won’t see him again. We’ll keep track of James on Facebook. There’s a chance we might run into him again at the Mediterranean.
While I was paying the bill, I started talking to a young woman in line. She had heard Pam and I talking about needing groceries. We told her about our 5-6 year plan and she loved it. She said she and her husband had taken 9 months off to cycle around the continent of Asia and spending four and a half months in Nepal. She said it was the best thing they have ever done. She offered to get some groceries for us. We thanked her for the offer but said we were fine waiting until morning. Yvo and Annieka, along with their two sons, Jidda and Tieben are from Holland. They have just started cycling again now that their youngest is 6 months old. They have just modified the trips a bit to allow for all the extra gear for two toddlers. Today, they were going to try hiking in the mountains. Their three year old keeps them hopping. I’m so glad to see them with their young boys out in nature.
I got caught up on the blog a bit while Pam hung up the laundry. While she was resting and editing my work, I moved the tent. After she showered, we decided it was time to head to town to grab some food and look around. We walked into the first restaurant and Heike was sitting at a table in the corner. Axel was off taking care of some business. We were afraid we had seen the last of them–this might be it this time. They are still going to hike on and plan to be done with this portion of the trip by Thursday. The one thing that was nice about the Camino is that we got to spend lots of time with people we met hiking. On this trail, we just start to really get to know people and then they are gone. We are officially on our own once again.
Lescun roughly translates as “the cutest, flicking town in the world”. We are so glad we spent an extra day here. I don’t know if I’d want to spend the rest of my life here, but I could easily spend a year here to see all the seasons. There is nature unbelievable with more than enough trails to keep us occupied. I can’t think of a more idealistic village. We walked around town and took a short hike up the side of the mountain to get a bird’s eye view of the valley.
A few beers and dinner before heading back to our camp for the night and we have had an ideal rest day. I’m sorry to be moving on from here, but I know we’ll be ready in the morning once we get some supplies.
