We got away nice and early, 8am, expecting a warm sort of day with a high of around 30C. After a nice breakfast, we did manage to hit the road at 8 and, after walking through the town square and old town (which was setting up for a flea market), started feeling the lightest drops of rain – not what we expected at all and our ponchos were in our suitcases!
As it turned out we walked in scotch mist for the first couple of hours which made for very pleasant walking but not much in the way of views! It was also a little bit eerie because, at least in the middle part of the morning, there was almost no noise at all – for the last couple of days we have always had the sound of at least one tractor working in the background. We passed our first copse of eucalypts in the morning and also a signboard celebrating famous “Gersoi” – people from the Gers valley – including the real d’Artagan on whom Alexander Dumas’ character is based.
We stopped for a quick coffee in a town called Manciet (I took a picture of the old school on the way in – if you look closely you can see that garçons and filles have separateclassrooms) and then headed out of that town on a very busy road – we probably saw more cars on the way into and out of Manciet than anywhere since Le Puy.
Not long after we left Manciet, we went a bit off piste, led astray by the trail I had downloaded to my phone! We recovered the track again after about 1 1/2 km and not long after doing so passed a series of photos a guy had taken of walkers who had stayed at his gite over a 3 year period, and just after that passed the Greenwich Meridian heading west…
A quick stop for lunch and we were into Nogaro just before 2pm. Our hotel is just short of the town but I think we’ll duck up there later this afternoon to pick up supplies for tomorrow so I’ll add a few photos then😀
21kms today and 563km in total!
steelewalking 