We had a nice walk along the river, longer than it should have been because we lost the trail a few times and had to check map to see where we had gone wrong. The beginning of the trail had had a lot of flood damage some time ago including a number of trees down in the river so there has been lots of equipment in along the river to remedy the situation. This does not help trying to keep track of a trail. We arrived in Grabels in time for lunch but the only place open on a Monday is the PMU. This is a bar where you can bet on the horses. Only drinks are sold: beer, wine and coffee. When we inquired about food the bar lady said to go down to the little store down the road and buy something and we could eat it in her bar with our drinks. So off we went and with luck they were still open, although they close at 12:30 and reopen at 4:00. Yes I know - odd hours for North Americans to understand. But we were in luck as it was just passed 12:30 but we were able to go in and pick our something to eat at this very nice little fruit, veggie, wine and nut store. We headed back and ordered beer each, and ate our lunch there. After the beer we each at a very good coffee. (Remember we were not planning on much more walking.)
Off we went on the actual Camino trail, this time to climb up onto the plateau just to see the view. Once up to the top we were onto the "garrigue". Garrigue is a low open scrub land with many ever green shrubs, low trees, aromatic herbs (lavender, thyme, rosemary) and bunch grasses, found in poor or dry soil in the Mediterranean region. We could smell the thyme as we scrunched over little bushes of it along the trail.
And limestone. We found it all and it was hot. Once we got to the top, neither one of us wanted to stop and turn back. I particularly do not like going back from whence I came, so we discussed it and decided to carry on to Montarnaud, a total of 12 km more from Grabels. It was too hot but we went anyway and were so glad we did even though we are both suffering a bit tonight from our longer than expected hike. But before that happened one of those strange Camino occurrences happened to us. We were just crossing over the first road after coming down from the garrigue when we saw a couple of other hikers, obviously Camino pilgrims by their packs and shells on their backs. They were walking back and forth trying to find the trail. Wendy called to them "salut" thinking of course they were French. But they answered in English, with Australian accents. We both went up to them to find out where the trail was; they had lost the trail markings so we discussed where it might go from here. Then we discussed past caminos and found out we had both walked the le Puy route in 2013. And then Paul says, we met a couple of Canadian women walking then. Hmmmm, are you the friends of Polly and Sue from Tasmania? Well yes, we are, we both said. Then it turns out we had actually had dinner with these two Australians in Cahors, France, September 2013 along with Polly and Sue from Tasmania. We had shared a bottle of champagne as a treat to reach the half way mark. Then did not see them again, as often happens. But I have a picture of the 6 of us in my album at home. Well, how small is this world!!!!! We walked on together all the way to Montarnaud, where they were booked for the night. They are walking the Arles route to Spain, through the Pyrenees at Somport. We chatted and thoroughly enjoyed the rest of our hike with them. Took pictures and exchanged email addresses before we had to catch the last bus back to Montpellier at 6:15. What an adventure. We both accumulated 25 kms on our fitbits today!
What new adventure will tomorrow bring?
Salut!
Marion et Wendy
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