We left the spectacular views from yesterday’s hilly walk as we prepared for today. Lots of walkers mingled, ate, drank and were loud together. Our news to Brigitte that we were leaving early threw her into a panic but she soon decided to give us our breakfast tonight -fortunate because we couldn’t rely on much being open tomorrow, she said. A more gently undulating walk today should make our knees and bursas happy today. Minus degrees this morning so looking forward to the heat of the sun which will have the sky to itself.

Our early departure is for varied reasons: silence but with birds; we are moving slowly so takes us longer; people can’t read my Parkinson’s sign if they leave first, it also means there is the possibility to have a chat. So ‘bonjours’ and ‘bon chemins’ are most of our chats, bits of sign language help, but we extended that a little with a couple who spoke English.

We walked through about 6 villages, which has been the norm, with little happening bar the dogs. Usually there are quiet Collie-type dogs, with a variety of others doing the barking for them, and 3 vicious looking dogs who fell silent once we had passed. The villages work together as a unit and have done for eons (I’ll do more research and get back) – the village gardens showing off their few tulips and daffodils.

Between villages the lower landforms were lusciously grassed while the hills above them were forested with thousands of commercially grown pines – the beech and birch trees stubbornly holding their ground amongst them.

On our final downhill stagger to home we met a Spaniard going the other way – he began at the end of the earth – Finisterre, and was on his way to Rome. Esteban was excited to meet someone who spoke Spanish and it was lovely for all of us to reminisce on Bilboa, a memorable town on the ‘camino norte’, a hard but enticing journey along the Spanish north coast.

We’ll be back tomorrow
Will and Corrie

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