08.04.10 Gaudins to Reillanne – 21km

We spend a comfortable night with Nellie nearby, tethered to a ground stake we have brought with us - the owner is protective of his trees. When we wake we hear her grazing close by, very close by, and when we look out her head is looking in. She has pulled out the stake and wandered unrestricted for who knows how many hours, but she is still with us. Another tick in the box for behaviour, with just a few more to add before she can becomes perfection itself – in equine terms. In the evening we find a chambre d'hote, after what seems like hours of wandering up and down woodland paths, where the owner has set up a tether for us – the rain is still hammering down and worse still our spirits. Then we realise that we left our collapsible bucket at a campsite!

Paul

So as Babette heads off once more to tend to Nellie's foot I am handed the laptop to add my two-penneth to the blog.

First I am tempted to address the inevitable why are we doing this again question. The honest answer is I am not entirely sure.

I can make some apparently virtuous assertions that it is to help others enjoy the pilgrim experience by providing the information they need in an accurate and digestible form for the less well travelled routes - but maybe that was just an advertisement (you see even after 5 years of retirement « selling » seems to be ingrained trait). Nonetheless there is some truth in this. There is something about pushing back the further onset of ageing... « if I can walk all this way then surely I can't be so old » and anyway I need to lose a few kilos. Not far from this there is the ego boost of being able to say we have done something a bit out of the ordinary. There is also the desire to rediscover those wonderful events and friendships that seem to emerge in the darkest moments of difficulty when someone steps forward and offers a helping hand.

Strangely the need to travel with animals fits in here somewhere too. They so often act as the bridge to new friendships, but they provide the hour by hour motivation for overcoming the next hurdle and yet repay every effort with their simple loyalty.

Perhaps the journey provides another chance to look over the edge and outside the daily routine to learn a little more what makes us (me) tick. And of course we hope to use the journey to give something to those that have not and may never have the opportunity to do something similar – I am, of course, talking about Anne-Marie's project. All of these things are true, but I am not sure which really drive me. Perhaps this will become clear as we proceed.

To return to the concrete world. Steven, the owner of the chambre de hôte had gone out and so had left his house unlocked for us to get out of the rain. We had only spoken to him on the phone for a few minutes and yet he was prepared to trust us with his home! After a much needed rest on a soft bed, aided by an excellent bottle of côte de Ventoux we have decided to take timeout today and allow Nellie the opportunity for her cut to heal. On our previous journeys we both took a long time to learn to throw the schedule away and progress at the pace of the slowest member of the team, but now, despite a long list of things that must be done when we get home, it seems that the lesson was well learned and we are tearing up the calendar after just 1 week on the road. A fellow pilgrim, Mike Metras, has written about learning to « live in the now » and maybe this is a small example of what he means.

After her rest Nellie's foot looks much improved, but we will only aim for a very small distance tomorrow to test her reactions and if need be we will have another short day afterwards.

Accommodation – chambre d'hote, accepts horses if tethered. rating: good/PR. 70 euros, expensive for the pilgrim pocket, though owner is considering cheaper gite facilities for pilgrims. Stephen Lévy, La Crzu Barruom 04110 REILLANCE 06 76 06 36 12 www.montagnedeprovence.fr stephen.levy@hotmail.fr www.lamaisonbleue.org
The next blog entry will confirm whether or not the day went well.