Final post

We are at the  "Gare" to purchase tickets to San Sebastion for a 2 day stay before travelling to Bordeaux to meet Beverley and Jocelyn.

We have walked 730 Km. in 33days of walking and another 3 days of rest - Congues, Cahors and Moissac.

It's time to conclude this blog - more than happy to still receive emails as BMD and GD do not return home until early days of October.

Thanks for viewing,

      Tim and Geoff

More shots on the last day into St.Jean Pied de Port

We have met some lovely people on the "Way" including this Dutch couple Maria and Andre.

The Pyrenees were covered in haze most of the time, but the outlines were enough to engender respect.

Ferme Gaineko-Extea near Ostabat

Bernard and Lucie were excellent hosts at this well appointed gite. There were 22 walkers overnight and he entertained them with Basque songs and received an enthusiastic response. Beans are a popular vegetable and went well with the sausages.

Some shots of the Basque Country we are now walking through

The Pyrenees have been within our landscape now for about 3 days, but a persistent low cloud / smog and no wind has meant we can only see vague outlines -but we can work out that they are very impressive and reach at least 2900 metres in a couple of cases. 

We are already impressed with the Basque houses and farms and there appears to be a lot more activity than earlier in France.

1. Looking towards Ostabat

2. The village of Ostabat

3. Lunch - 30 plus cm. ham and cheese roll ( called a sandwich )

4. A Basque farmhouse we awarded 9 out of 10

5. A lucky shot of 2 raptors surveying today's high country

6. The Pyrenees from our gite balcony at. 4 pm. today

The Communal gite in Aroue

Aroue is a small village at the end of stage 30 in the Michelin Guide. We were the only 2 booked in and on arrival discovered there was no dinner or breakfast and only one shop !

The manager rang the Pizza shop lady to make sure she was going to open at 5.30pm and then promptly left for the night!

We sat outside her shop drinking wine we had purchased inside and watched the traffic go passed through the roundabout before returning to an empty gite with 2 excellent pizzas!

Be careful Wood Pigeons !

Just as the Canadian Geese migrate each year  - so do the Wood Pigeons in this part of the world. In Autumn they fly South and return flying North in the Spring.

This is by far the highest shooters hide we have seen being about 30 metres up in the tallest trees at the top of a significant hill.

Gite d'Etape du Cambarrat

Our problem of booking Gites in advance has been helped by Genevieve who has coincided in the last couple of stop-overs. Tonight's gite is in Argagnon and was difficult to find. We came across Genevieve asking directions from a farmer in a very large John Deere tractor with spreader attached. Next minute he takes our 3packs into his cab and tells us the gite is another 2 Km down the road - just turn left at the Eglise!!

We eventually arrive at this lovely old farmhouse to meet Nicole - he and his wife raised 7 children on this farm. A lovely dinner and then Banjo from Nicole made for an excellent and unexpected highlight of our trip!

Tim and I were given a 4 bed room to share while Genevieve was relegated to the Gypsy Caravan!