Whatever Comes First:

Being home again as spring passes with the warmth of summer already upon us is making my feet itchy to walk, and walk. I know, just back a short time from our last adventure and desiring to be off again on another journey. Well, I have a pretty good excuse for this behavior, actually several. Firstly, this is the lifestyle distantly planned for during our many university and working years. Secondly, I feel compelled to celebrate (perhaps the wrong choice of words) a bit of a personal milestone…I turn 60 in July. Mon Dieu!! My inner voice is telling me that I’ll need a very long walk indeed to get over this rather intrusive life event! Thirdly, sort of like the song, “its my party and I’ll walk if I want to…”

So the decision has been made. Subject to a minor, but critically located foot injury healing well, I depart August 13^th (that’s just 10 weeks from now) and arrive in Lyon, France on the 14^th. After a day of wandering this, the second largest city in France and passing through the jet lag barrier, I’ll take the train to Le Puy-en-Velay where I’ll spend a day or so seeing this very picturesque volcanically situated town.

I’ve selected the Le Puy Route, aka the GR65, aka the Via Podiensis because it passes through one of the principal volcanic areas of France (allegedly all extinct) situated in the Massif Central. Of course this means that there will be climbing…there’s always climbing…sigh. I plan to walk out on August 18^th mid week to miss the weekend warriors and touring groups, hoping that I will have better luck finding a bed each night in a gîte, similar to an albergue in Spain. I’ve also chosen this route for the history. This route crosses one of the longest settled regions in France from early man to the Romans to the 100 Years War to the present. I’ll eventually post more about the route.

Clearly I have to go because my Miam Miam Dodo (official route book) arrived from the UK just 10 minutes ago! Its all in French, so another project…learn some French. I think the walking will be the easier of the two? Annemarie is presently looking at the profile maps and laughing at all the steep climbs she will miss in the first two weeks. She’s not making me feel very spiritual about our walk together with such un-Camino like comments, “I’ve never seen climbs this steep before!”

It will take me 14 stages to cross the mountains and I hope to be able to accomplish this without a day off as I have to meet Annemarie in Cahors around September 1^st where we will celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary (if I walk really fast I might just make it on the actual day). Over the following 3 weeks we will walk together SE across the Garonne River Valley and over the Pyrenees to Pamplona (picking up the Camino Frances in St. John Pied de Port). A combined distance of about 800kms. Yes, Annemarie is prepared to give this Camino thing another go and she is training very well. In late September she will return home from Pamplona to continue a project that is very close to her heart. As it turns out this commitment will take her away from home off and on until the end of the first week of November…you can see where this is going;-)

Yes, body and sole permitting, and with Annemarie’s blessing, I will continue to walk…somewhere in Spain. After all, I’ll already be in country. I have several ideas perking away, but I’ll probably make the final decision closer to Pamplona. I have booked myself a one-way ticket to Lyon so that I’m free to stop walking when either I’ve had enough, or I find myself in the first week of November…whatever comes first!