WHEN WALKING

Home to Santiago – Day 32 Cartelègue to Arsac: 23km (plus ferry) Leaving Cartelègue, I’m entering wine country proper. The villages feel more functional, the fields dedicated to grapes. But this is all good for making progress, as are lower temperatures and a grey sky, which I’ve now learned to love. After a month of…

Home to Santiago: Day 31 Petit Niort to Cartelègue: 32km The mornings are a little cooler at the moment as are the nights, so a 7am lie-in is neither impossible nor imprudent. As I am making my way along the lanes, I think I hear the sound of medieval music coming from the church just…

Home to Santiago – Day 30 Pons to Le Petit Niort: 32 kilometres This morning, I’m up at quarter to six and out by quarter past seven. I am and I am not a morning person. I just find it such a leisurely time of day. Matheus, on the other hand, is up at 6.15…

Home to Santiago – Day 29 Saintes to Pons: 25km It’s past eleven by the time I finally leave Saintes. I was planning to leave late so I could see the cathedral and the basilica which I’d missed last night, but eleven is pushing it. First of all, breakfast in the halte, which is provided.…

Home to Santiago – Day 28 Saint-Jean-d’Angely to Saintes: 36km This morning I wake up early, but I delay my start as the thunder rumbles outside. Very few lightning flashes, though, and not the downpour I’d expected, indeed, hoped for. So, at seven o’clock, after a brief goodbye to Suliac, I get walking in the…

Home to Santiago – Day 27 Aulnay-de-Saintonges to Saint-Jean-d’Angely: 36km The boys left super early this morning, while it was dark. I think they do not want another day like yesterday. Jean-Charles leaves a little before me, leaving me to shut up and leave, during what I now know is nautical twilight, full visibility and…

Home to Santiago – Day 26 Brioux-sur-Boutonne to Aulnay-de-Saintonge: 23km I see the dawn. It’s a miracle. For once I managed to get up early and leave early. Twenty minutes later than I’d planned, but even so, twenty minutes before seven means I have just over three hours of walking before the temperatures go over…

Home to Santiago – Day 25 Melle to Brioux-sur-Boutonne: 16km I’m worried I could get used to this shorter day business. It is quite nice, arriving in time to lounge about on your own little gite, to get your washing done in time for it to dry, to write up the day while it’s still…

Home to Santiago – Day 24 Chenay to Melle: 25km As I set off down the road from Chenay, I’m quite excited to see two men out trimming the hedges with a scythe. You rarely see non-grim scythers nowadays. By the time I reach them, they’re in their van, but with the windows down, and…