We knew it was going to be a challenging day today, and it was! We got away pretty early, just after 8am armed with a shortcut from one of our hosts, Fritz that helped us take couple of km off the first section (by taking the original Camino). The first section followed the ridge that Arthez is on, gradually dropping down to the village of Gouze before taking a sharp right just before the village. Fabulous views left and right but for almost the first time there was a bit of industry rather than villages dotted through the landscape.
The track from Gouze almost to Maslacq was on private property but, as you can see from one of the photos, pilgrims or pelerins are allowed by custom!
We stopped briefly for a bite to eat as Maslacq after crossing the Gave de Pau and the freeway and then followed the valley on roads to Sauvelade, where we stopped for lunch (I stuffed up big time – at the abbey there was a place with a menu de jour but I suggested we head in further to a cafe that I thought was 2km up the road. Turned out it was about 200m up the road and not particularly good but it was the only food apart from the abbey between Arthez and Navarrenx).
After Sauvelade we seemed to get a bit out of whack – the names of towns I had written down didn’t match with those we came across and my Topo maps trail went a completely different way. Nevertheless the way markers were consistently there so we followed the trail up and down about three ridges, now with the Pyrénées in clear sight, until we finally arrived at Méritien, a lovely little town just before Navarrenx. We pressed on for Navarrenx, where we had planned to stop for the day and get a taxi the last couple of km to our accommodation. We had a couple of drinks and then called the taxi, only to be told it would be an hour so we trudged the last couple of km into Castetnau.
A rest day tomorrow fortunately!
31 km today and 682km in total – looking forward to dinner and a few wines!
steelewalking 