20 September 2023
Zen Abeille to Saint-Jean-le-Vieux - 19 kms
We thoroughly enjoyed yesterday afternoon and evening. Sandra, our host for the night, made an occasion of stamping our credentials. She brought out her stamp kit: coloured wax pieces, a little candle wax melter, and her stamp. Being a honey producer the stamp is of a bee. Sandra's daughter cooked us a fantastic meal which we ate outside. With the other three pilgrims all being French most of the conversation was beyond us but one chap acted as an interpreter from time to time. They were all lovely people.
Today started off well. Breakfast was ready at 7am and we then all readied ourselves and set off. The morning was beautifully fresh and the path took us past Saint-Just-Ibarre and several other small communities before directing us up into the hills much as we had yesterday.
The climb up was steep and after we had reached a good height we saw and heard several dogs. They were barking viciously racing wildly around on the path above us. We were concerned for Claire, one of the French pilgrims, as she was a little way ahead of us. We then spotted her coming down as quickly as she could. When she reached us she indicated to us not to go that way but to return back to where we had come from and walk on the road instead. She was very distressed. Using Google Translate I asked her about the dogs and she replied that there were many.
The path was steep going up which made for a very slow descent back to where we had come from, all in all an hour had gone by. We caught up with Claire a bit later, she was having a break and was chatting to a man in high vis jacket and had a rifle slung over his shoulder - he was a deer hunter. She was talking to him about the dogs in the hills and later, using Translate again, she explained that the dogs were with their owners who were hunting wild boar. No wonder the dogs were in a frenzy.
Even though we didn't go on the track up into the hills we still had a hard uphill walk on the road to Col du Gamia (a mountain pass), and then, of course, we had the descent which followed. It was tough going as the temperature was around 28°C, or more, and the sealed road radiated heat. There was a restaurant at the top which we had hoped to get a cold drink, only it was closed today.
The countryside we walked through was beautiful. We looked across to hills and down on to groomed settlements and farmland.
We've stopped for the night at Saint-Jean-le-Vieux, just a few kilometres before Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port, the end of our Chemin du Piémont Pyrénéen. Tomorrow we'll finish our chemin, the first of three routes we hope to walk. We'll be fresher tomorrow morning and will enjoy finishing feeling rested.
We're not really sure of how far we walked today - it would be been more than the 19 kms we were expecting.
One thing we've both noticed is that we've seen very few birds. We've seen, and heard, plenty of crows and pigeons but very little else. We did hear a woodpecker one day and at times birdsong but generally very little. The last three days though we have seen griffin vultures gliding high above the hills.
Sandra's daughter who cooked our fantastic meal.
