Time Departed: 8.10am
Time Arrived: 4.45pm
Distance: 30kms
Cumulative Distance: 641kms
Percentage Completed: 83% (1,051,500 steps)
Weather: Overcast and cool in the morning, warm and sunny in the afternoon
Accommodation: Domaine de Compestelle, Casteide Candau
Feelings: Neil - Happy, Henk - Positive, Di - Happy
This was our longest day on the walk and surprisingly it seemed to go quickly. We usually have a walking strategy for long days but the positioning of the towns en route determined our strategy. We had morning tea at the hilltop village of Pimbo at the 10kms mark and lunch at Arzacq-Arraziguet at the 18kms mark. We made good time until 1.2kms from Pimbo when we had to walk on an extremely muddy, slimy, greasy path. It took us an extra fifteen minutes to work our way through it. All the walkers were struggling with it.
It was a relief to reach Pimbo after all the mud and the final steep incline. It was a lovely little village with a cafe outside the church, the Collegiate Church of Saint-Barthelemy. We met up with the young Dutch couple whom we met yesterday at the bus shelter. We stayed for about twenty minutes having a coffee before moving on knowing we had about another twenty kilometres to walk.
We arrived at 12.45pm at Arzacq-Arraziguet which was timely for lunch. We opted to go to the Sports Bar/Cafe as suggested by the elderly Belgium couple at last night’s dinner. They were at the cafe having lunch and it was good to see them again. We decided on soup and bread for lunch as we thought it would be quick to arrive but after fifteen minutes of waiting we were told that there was none left. We were left with the menu and another ten minutes went by before our order was taken. We opted for the ham omelette and it eventually came and the wait was worth it. Arzacq-Arraziguet has a wide central square with businesses and houses surrounding it.
We finally left Arzacq at 2.00pm which was much later than planned. We had a further 12kms to walk in three hours as our host was picking us up at 5.00pm. The two Canadian women were also staying at the same accommodation and they left Arzacq just ahead of us as they had to wait for their lunch orders as well. As soon as we left the town we came across a lake with wonderful reflections as the water was dead calm.
The terrain changed in the afternoon. We have been spoilt over the passed five to six days with mostly flat walking, however, during the afternoon we had quite a few accents and descents. It was also quite warm but the afternoon, surprisingly, went very quickly.
We made it to the pick up point at the church at Larreule at 4.45pm and our host arrived at 5.15pm. We were taken to our accommodation which was about a fifteen minute drive. Henk had to sit in the back of the van with the backpacks, we three women sat in the back seats and Neil sat next to the driver. We couldn’t see Henk in the back but he held on and could see some of the scenery through the back windows.
Our accommodation seems to dedicate its business to walkers and on arrival we were shown the drinks fridge. We immediately went to our rooms, dumped our backpacks and luggage and sat in the garden with cool drinks. Dinner was at 7.00pm and the five of us sat enjoyed a three course meal provided by our hosts. The red wine was a local one with the accommodation’s name on it.
It was a good day and we were pleased to have completed the thirty kilometres.
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