With our busy social life out of the way, it’s back to the hard slog. It’s been raining all night amid the huge light and sound show so there’s a bit of a worry about the state of the track.
There’s also a pattern emerging similar to our Swiss experience – it either rains during the night, mid-late afternoon or/and early morning, so walking has been mostly rain free because we dodge it between 8 and 3.30. This could change of course but so far it’s worked like a dream.
The track though is a different thing. Early morning it was a long hike in long grass so because my shoes aren’t waterproof they get soaked through – luckily it doesn’t affect my walking or my feet. Corrie on the other hand doesn’t need to worry, it’s only the mud that is an issue and the grass saves you from that. That same long grass also softened the hard lines of the tunnels under the disused railway line.
The days are mostly cloudy with bits of light drizzle, so the only downside with the weather at the moment is the humidity, and the upside (mostly is the breeze which is always cool and refreshing.
At our new village the tourist information person is the same young girl who helped us so much in the last village. Marie actually wrote the book that we are using so she is obviously passionate about helping walkers in whatever way she can.
We are the beneficiaries of her creative idea: using schools to accommodate pilgrims in the evening. At Euro5 they are not doing it for a profit. So we are the solo guests in a massive 2 storey gymnasium surrounded by kid stuff with mattresses on the floor the way kids like it, and lots of stuffed animals which fits perfectly with us … because after an extra 2 kms to get here we’re stuffed too.