Day 36 - Aire-Sur-L’Adour - Miramont-Sensacq - 6 June

Time Departed: 8.20am

Time Arrived: 1.50pm

Distance: 19kms 

Cumulative Distance: 611kms

Percentage Completed: 79% (1,005,800 steps)

Weather: Overcast and cool 

Accommodation: La Maison du Bos 

Feelings: Neil - Happy, Henk - Energetic,  Di - Keen

We felt energised after our last rest day at Aire-Sur-L’Adour and we were keen to get underway again. We are now on our last stage with eight walking days left to reach St Jean-Pied-de-Port. For the first time in quite a number of days we had an immediant ascent from the flooded L’Adour River to the ridge behind the town. We passed the Church of St Quitterie near the top where the original foundations go back to a Roman temple of Mars. 

Apart from a pleasant walk in a covered wood around the lake, Le Lac du Brousseau, today’s walk was flat with very, very long straight stretches beside acres and acres of newly planted corn. 

The area is very exposed and it would be hot walking if it was sunny. Thankfully it was overcast. The usual red and white striped sign which we have followed from Le Puy now has an accompanying blue, yellow and white arrow. 

There was also an increased number of walkers with the majority of them being French. During the morning there were frequent French airforce jets flying over us. We couldn’t see them because of the cloud but their noise permeated the plains. 

After two and a half hours of walking we came across a bus shelter which was perfect timing to sit and eat the food we bought at the boulangerie at Aire-Sur-L’Adour. A young Dutch couple were also at the shelter and we chatted to them. They are walking from Le Puy-en-Velay to Santiago Compostela on the El Norte route. This would be about 1,600kms. 

We made good time due the easy terrain and at a crossroads at the end of the day’s walk we could either go to our accommodation which was 750m one way or go into the small village of Miramont-Sensacq the other way. As it was only 500m to go to the village we decided to go and find a cafe. We arrived at the only shop, a boulangerie, at 1.00pm and it was closing. 

The man was very friendly and we purchased drinks and coffee. The sun started to emerge for the first time and we couldn’t find any covered area so we sat on stairs at the back of the modern local government building (Mairie). Eventually a friendly lady going home for lunch showed us a shady area with a picnic bench.

We noticed storm clouds building very quickly and so we hot-footed it to our accommodation via the village church which showed a Spanish influence. We are now only about 120kms to the Spanish border if we drove straight to it. 

We received an email from Anne whom we walked with for the first five days and we have kept in contact during the past five weeks via email, FB messaging and our blogs. She has made it to St Jean-Pied-de-Port. It’s a great effort as she did it on her own and she had some long days in not good weather. We rang her and congratulated her on reaching St Jean. It was great to catch up and she sounded so happy to have made it. She will be celebrating with some fellow Aussies over a few glasses of champagne. 

Our accommodation is fantastic. It sits on a ridge overlooking the flat plains. Our host, Corine  made us very welcome. There were seven of us for dinner, two Belgium, two Canadian and we three Australians. Most of the ingredients for the soup and salad were from the garden. We were able to speak in English as the Belgium couple spoke Dutch, French and English which impressed us greatly. 

Tomorrow is our longest day of the walk at 29kms.