08/09/12: St Criq

A great night's sleep at the gite Grangé and a fine spread for breakfast. Again I took my time repacking everything - packing the rucksack is becoming something of an important routine.

I set out around 09:00, maybe a little before, aware that the day was forecast to be hot.

In fact today's stage wasn't terribly interesting in terms of scenery, villages passed through or anything really. That's not me being jaded or cynical, simply that this was a day that took me through farmland, long-ish stretches of shaded woodland, and some road walking which was invariably hot.

The first place I passed after around two hours was Gimont, its church spire dominating the skyline:

Now that I no longer need any of the maps I brought to get me from home past Toulouse I was pleased to find a surprisingly large and well equipped Post Office in Gimont. With no fuss or bother I rid myself of close to 1kg of unwanted paper. As I passed out of Gimont I was impressed by their very large Halle. Many towns have these large roofed spaces where the weekly markets take place, but this one was particularly large - so much so that it was now also a traffic feature:

Gimont is the only 'proper' town on this stage of the route. There was a gite here until recently but we were told it closed last weekend - not that I would have made it here yesterday, that would have been too far.

So as I say, the route from here was really all just farmlands and woods. I had tried to call ahead to a particularly nice gite to check that there was a bed, but the number I'd taken from last night's gite received no response. No matter, I knew there were three or more gites in Montegut, which was also near the end of today's stage.

As I moved into the afternoon (and goodness me it was hot!) it occurred to me that the hills I could see in the distance, now not quite so far away, were probably the Pyrenees:

In this region they're currently harvesting the sunflowers. Looking at the size and distribution, this would have been a sea of yellow as far as the eye could see just a few months ago. Now it left the landscape looking brown and charred - more like Extramadura in southern Spain than the normally verdant pastures of southwest France:

And after what felt like a very long and hot afternoon, while walking through another wood, I noticed a small advert pinned to a tree. It was an advertisement for the very gite I had unsuccessfully tried to contact. I called them and they confirmed that there was a free room, so I picked up my pace a little and set out for the final kilometres. The community is called St Criq, near to Montegut. To be honest, after having passed so many nondescript collections of buildings I was rather impressed when Montegut itself hoved into view in the late afternoon light, as I passed out of a wood:

After several more passes along wooded avenues I got a closer shot before passing through the village itself:

It was shortly after this while on my way to St Criq, that I realised I'd perhaps reached a limit. My feet were by now certainly tired and it had been very hot all day. There seemed to be just a few kilometres of my day left but since none of the signposts carry distances, one is left in this curious mental state of knowing that there is a little farther to go but without knowing exactly how much farther. I called the gite to check my directions and she offered to come and meet me in the car. Since I was also concerned that my relatiely late arrival might impact on their efforts to prepare supper I agreed. But it would be true to say that I had had enough for the day and was grateful when a small, slightly battered red Renault pulled up. I must have been less than 2km from my destination but was happy to accept the lift.

When I arrived at yet another thoroughly charming small stone cottage - with geese, several dogs and cats, the tomatoes ripening in the evening sun, I knew it had been a good decision to seek out this gite. When I learned that it had been 35 degrees in the afternoon, and that I had covered around 34 -35km in the heat, I recognised why I'd had enough!

Once again the hospitality has been utterly superb. I'm beginning to understand the hospitality aspect of all this. Most of these hosteleiros (?) have walked the route themselves and thus understand the mindset of the piglrim at the end of a long day. Lots of iced lemon flavoured water, a shower and a sit down and I was fully restored. The food - all home cooked and which was "pintade" (some sort of fowl) was outstanding.

Tomorrow when I depart I am going to retrace my steps to the point of collection, simply so that I can claim to have walked every step of the camino. This will also give me an opportunity to photograph the chateau de St Cirq, which looks to me like a very interesting 15th C castle. It is currently in a poor state and thus has not been turned into a tourist attraction, but to my mind that makes it in some ways far more interesting.

Anyway, it will be a shorter day tomorrow. Now that I have some understanding of my current limits, I can plan more effectively. However I have discovered that walking independently of the guidebooks can be a great thing. I'm now sort of "in between" the stages suggested in many guidebooks and have found that these "gites d'etape" rather than the communal or village sited gites, offer a far more welcoming and nourishing experience. So I'm going to continue to follow my nose and disregard the recommended stages.