Ed and I enjoyed the deepest and most profound sleep of the whole trip so far. The last thing we heard was the 9 pm bells from the church across from the plaza and next thing we know it was the 7 am bells that woke us up. We are so well rested.

Finally we feel completely immersed into the camino life. The walking, the resting, the rhythm of life all seems to go smoothly from one state to the next. Wake up, feeling good and refreshed, get dressed, boots on, breakfast, boots on the ground, go walk, picnic lunch, more walking, come in, shower, dinner, sleep. Repeat same thing next day.

Or so we wish. We had a great day yesterday walking in the fog, moving at a brisk pace, arriving early. Feeling good about ourselves. Feeling great, actually, feeling accomplished to be in such good form. Just as we started to think we can conquer the world, two great hikers warriors walking fast and moving quickly through the fields, we might have perhaps upset some higher forces up in the sky that is determine to teach us a lesson about humility!

We woke up not only to the sound of church bells but also of rumbling thunders. We came down to breakfast and joined in with 5 other extremely nice French pilgrims. All seven of us watched the grey sky and listened to the thunders. We all checked our iPhone weather forecast. Rain to start at 1 pm today. Good, if we walk fast may be we can beat the rain.

Just as we said that the rain poured down. Heavy rain and loud thunders. We all huddle up by the window. Decision time. One couple suggested we call in some kind of car transport to take us to Eauze, our next destination for today. We are all heading there. Another couple days we should walk it. We are pilgrims. We walk in any kind of weather, not just fair weather.

We debated. The French like a good lively debate. We are just waiting to see what comes out of this. I guess we could row sham bow too.

Finally the consensus is: we walk. Of course that has to be the consensus, considering none of us has any other means of transportation except our feet! We set out, all seven warrior pilgrims laughing and chanting, braving the downpour. We were soon joined in with 2 more couples that we met and walked with for many days but they stayed somewhere else last night. 11 pilgrims and one heck of a heavy downpour.

We walked through many fields and vineyards of white grapes. We are heading to Eauze, the Armagnac capital of France.

The first 8 kilometers pass between vines and countryside until we reach the hamlet of Lamothe with its 13th Century guard tower. There were quite a bit of incline and up and down stretches of very slippery trails in the heavy rain.

The trail after our break changes from nice and steep inclines alongside fresh vines at the start to a pretty flat 7 km of old railroad track. The Camino goes down into the valley before a steady uphill trail leads you gently into the Place d’Armagnac in Eauze.

For coin collectors and treasure enthusiasts there is a collection of 28,000 roman coins at the Museum in Eauze.

We found the best camaraderie today on the slippery trail. The trail itself is not difficult. In fact it would be a very easy mild walk if there was no heavy downpour. We can sense all 11 pilgrims watching out for each other, cheering each other onward through some tough stretches. It was very nice. We really appreciate the warm friendship of our fellow pilgrims.

We arrive in Eauze soaking wet. Heavily Muddy. Completely exhausted. There is no place to stay today but the hotel Henry IV. We are all going there. As we arrive to the hotel, we were quickly ushered into a mud cleaning room. We were give a nice brush. All boots out. Hot water by a sink and with the brush we have to wash our boots. This is serious. We have been asked to leave our boots on shelves but we were never asked to wash our boots before. Today we have to wash our boots. Good thing we did. We got two pounds of mud out of each shoe! Then we have to stuff newspaper inside our boots to draw out the moisture. Then we line our boots outside our rooms to dry.

There is a concert in the town square tonight. The hotel staff apologizes in case there is extra noise from the concert. We just laugh it off. We will sleep through anything today. No worries.

Dinner at 7 pm. As part of the hotel stay. Dinner and breakfast all included. I think all 11 pilgrims will all congregate and eat together tonight. We will celebrate with some Armagnac since we are in the Armagnac capital here.

We will have much to talk about tonight. A lot to congratulate each other for a well deserved meal and a shared sense of accomplishment after a difficult hard day in the rain. Partly from the slippery road. Partly from the ickiness of wet shoes, wet socks, cold feet, sweaty shirts under the ponchos and constant rain hitting our faces. I am pretty sure dinner will be lively.

In contrast to last night, we were all at this very beautiful gite, all stuffed with nice antiques but a very stuffy hostess. As Ed sat in one of the antique chair in the waiting room, he was told he can’t sit there because the chair is very very old. A true piece of previous antique and it’s not supposed to be sat on. We can’t really tell. It was just a chair. Then we took a chair out of our room, which is one you can sit one, Ed was again scolded for putting the chair touching the wall. It could scratch the wall.

Then we are told we should be careful with the bed cover as it is very white. We can’t soil it. And the drapes, we can’t draw them because they are very fragile linen and we might rip them. We felt like we can’t do anything in the place except breath very softly as everything is so delicate and so antique and so precious. One wrong move and very thing will fall apart. It felt like we live in a museum. The place is very nice and very classy but it was definitely not a livable place. We did our best. We did not break anything. We enjoy our stay. But we also discover one very fundamental thing about the experience: we do not like to live in such a museum, not one bit, even though everything around us looks nice. We need to be at easy. Be comfortable. Chairs are meant to sit on. Window are meant to enjoy the sunshine. And we came up with one great conclusion: our life should be full of stories to tell and share, not full of stuff to show. It’s meaningless for us.

Another day, another camino lesson.

PS
Miss Ly’s ingenious method for drying the boots using the room fan! We should have dry boots for tomorrow!