On the road again. Will we make it to Auvillar today?

The first hurdle: packing all my medical supplies. We have a big box of bandages, scissor, tweezer, meche, anti septic cleaner, pain killer, etc … I am thinking of leaving all the pain killer behind but of course Murphy’s law will kick in. The minute I don’t have it I will be in insufferable agony! Anyway “nurse Ed” was amazing. We re use all the “use once and throw” stuff. I would not advise this to anybody at home but when we are on the road and we travel ultra light with every thing on the back of our backpack, it’s time to improvise and take a good look at weight vs everything else. When we travel by foot, pack weight trumps everything else. “Nurse Ed” carefully clean all his tools and sanitizes everything so we don’t have to use new tools every time we change my bandage. So far so good, it’s healing very well.

We decide since I am doing so well that we will leave behind all the pain killers, stomach aid etc…. I really don’t need anything. I feel no pain at all. It’s amazing.

We manage to squeeze all the extra medical supplies into our pack. That in itself is a miracle!

We followed the direction this morning, heading out, turn right, get to the chapel of st James, see the canal des deux mers ( canal of the two seas, because the canal goes from the Mediterranean to the Atlantic Ocean) then follow the canal on the left bank. We got to the canal easily and to our surprise, it’s a very enjoyable “stroll” under the shade of huge big trees lining the canal bank. A flat walk, no ups and downs at all. Very flat straight along the canal. It’s unbelievable.

Very soon we got to the first lock house on the canal. 1/4 of the day’s walk! And soon we got to the second lock house!!!! 1/2 of the day’s walk!

At the start of the day I was worried. I don’t think I can walk the whole day but now I am half way! It is so easy, flat walking, one foot in front of the other and I just move forward making my way to Auvillar. We walked through fields of corn, sunflowers and groves of peaches and apricots with trees full of fruits ready for harvesting.

We made really good time. We stopped for lunch at Espalais with our picnic lunch of fruits and cheese. And we walked on into Auvillar. We arrived early. I have absolutely no pain of any sort. Feeling good and happy.

So I think these French doctors had it all worked out. They have seen this all before. They know what to do. How many day rest. Where to get me to go and restart on my walk that is not too difficult. And that way I can regain my confidence and onward to the finish line. It’s awesome!

If I have had a very difficult day to day and if I can not get in to my destination to sleep for the night, I probably would loose a lot of moral and might not want to go on! This was a perfect plan! It worked out so well for me. I arrived early, in good form, not too tired, and a flat and easy stretch of walk. Very nice!

We got into Auvillar right at the festival of st Catherine by the river Garonne. It’s a lot of fun with lots of activities happening by the river bank.

We climb about a mile straight up hill to the center of the village where the clock tower is and the very charming cobblestone center plaza make up the center of town. Because of its high position above the river, the center of the village has an awesome view of all its surrounding.

The gite for tonight has a beautfilful garden full of yummy vegetable. Large size tomatoes and big eggplants and a whole bunch of other vegetables all awaiting the cook to fix us up a great dinner tonight!

Ed has a radio shoe tonight at 2:00 AM French time. I don’t now how he does it. He will also be reading all the petitions and prayers that have been sent in