Day 40 / Auros - Captieux / 33.93 km
I wake up at 7.00 and have my breakfeast. Old bread, butter, jam. I’m to lazy to make coffee for myself.
I write a “recommendation” in the Livre D’Or of the Chateau. I close the door behind me and visit the bakery to organise lunch. I start running. It’s grey but the views are nice. The landscape is still hilly but this will change soon into flat forest.
The path dives into a valley and I see for the first time a “palombiére” which is a construction used to hunt wild pigeons. During the day I will encounter a number of them. The hunt using a “palombiére” is typical for the region and exists of camouflaged constructions in the forrest. In most cases signs indicate not to enter them and to whistle when passing by to avoid you are considered to be a pigeon by the hunters.
After I pass a small lake in the forest the changes almost changes suddenly. The forrest becomes uniformly maritime pine. With 10.000 square kilometres the Landes is the biggest maritime pine forest in Europe. The forest is man cultivated starting the 18th century. The next 3 day’s it will be pines, pines,.....
The only variation of the day is the nice city of Bazas which is with it’s old centre and cathedral a major tourist attraction in the region. The Bazas city is also known for it’s meat. I have a drink and briefly visit the small Cathedral.
I leave Baszac and the rest of the day I run on an old train track. The old train track can be followed some 60 kilometres further ending in Roquefort (not the cheese Roquefort). The track is flat, in the middle there are a lot of stones, so I run mostly at the side where there is a nice cushion of pines.
At 12.30 I have my lunch on the bridge above. The weather remains grey and it’s somewhat colder compared to the day’s before. After lunch around 8 km rest to reach Captieux. Some 4 km far I see in the distance a red and green spot. The green/red spot seems to a French pilgrim’s couple on their way to the gite I’m staying as well. I walk the last 2 km together. At the gite there is already an Australian pilgrim. The gite is ok but due to electricity problems I will need to eat pizza tonight from the local takeaway. The restaurants in the village are closed at night.
Tomorrow I will go to Bostens, a 46 km stage. Looking at the map it’s always straight ahead, a flat forest path all the way with no villages in between.So at least The risk to get lost will be minimal and will be ideal to listen to Radio 1’s classic 1000. On the health side I have some small concerns. My throat feels different then usual and I start to feel a small pain under my heel. Mr.Google learns me that the symptoms of my heel look somewhat to those of what’s called plantaire fasciitis. Mr.Google is of course not a doctor. Let’s see on how things evolve the next days.
Lessons learned :
- Palombiéres somtimes comes with a camouflaged garage (see Wikipedia)
- Australian pilgrims smell at their socks and underwear. Repeatedly.
- There is not such thing as privacy in a refuge.
Song of today : In the pines - The Triffids
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