La Romieu to Condom - 16k

The TV girl with the winning smile etc. comes up with the goods at last, it’s a lovely morning.

The bad news is that the first two thirds of my way to the lunch stop at Condom are road.


I realised that  I am walking very slowly and now in pain rather than discomfort. I head into town to find the tourist office, where they fix me up with a list of Doctors…the nearest only 5 doors away.

Exactly 30 minutes later I was ushered into the doctor’s presence. The bottom line was I required at least five days not walking & I could either watch French TV or English TV…a good point I thought. ..all for 20 Euros.

I think there are many reasons for the difficulties with my ankles. First was the accident on the second day, but the main reason was excessive distance on Tarmac.

I was surprised my fitness didn’t seem to improve (although I am sure it did I had done a lot of hill walking before I left ) but fatigue became a factor with any walk over 30k. I must have been doing some exercise as I lost 6lbs in 20 days in spite of a lot of good food .

To return to my decision on the day, it was made for me, my original plan was to fly out on the 5th May; this would only give me another two days walking. The right decision was to go home.

As it was now noon and everything was shutting for lunch I sat by the river next door to the Church of Saint Jacoues and ate my lunch with the tasteless cheese, and felt very, very, frustrated. I had completed 508k’s of my planned 730k….70%. But this looked a good place to restart the journey sometime in the future.
After lunch I walked to a cyber café and with a lot of good natured help from the staff I worked out a way home. Toulouse was the easiest & cheapest route. Also it had a flight at 9pm which allowed me all day to get there.

As I pressed the ‘commit’ button on my flight home I knew I had done just that…committed myself to going home. I wandered back into town & was booking into the Gîte (a converted old school) when Elisabeth arrives in the office.

She is planning to have a day off in Condom. I tell her my sad news I tell her a beer is required. She has been a good friend and by accident popping up at the right time to have a beer or a chat.

We share a room with eight other people including a pair of overweight snorers (and for the record the worst of ‘em was a woman), the worst night ever in a Gîte.

I leave early the next morning, feeling very sad, having been welcomed and looked after by the French locals, met a lot of great people, enjoyed a variety of new scenery, eaten a lot of good food, drunk some great wine and questionable beer.

Was it enjoyable? ….most of the time yes, but not all the time, I never expected it to be. There were times when you were very tired at the end of the day standing in a path of mud when you just wanted it to stop, but these moments were in the minority. I had to learn to walk the distances that allowed life just to happen ...rather than be driven.
 

Was it a great experience? …yes, absolutely fantastic, I can’t wait to get back and start stage two next year.  But in the mean time I will return home to Joy, who I have missed enormously.

Footnote...e mail sent on my arrival home>>>