Day 3. Canal du Midi
It took me 40 mins. to walk back to the canal from my B&B on a vergeless busy road - glad to be still alive.
Just on the canal there was a rare water point, but I was already carrying four 500cl bottles, so just settled for a drink.
About 1:00 pm a little restaurant appeared and although the initial response was "complete" they let me have a table inside. The set menu had the plat principal including gesiers ( poultry throats I think, but never mind think I just don't like them). They agreed to frazzle some pork for me instead. I had arrived pretty well exhausted with the heat and when they brought my food I had nodded off.
That was the first place in three and a half days when I was able to buy ANYTHING on the canal. Anybody withy a rosy impression of magic little restaurants all along the way would be severely disappointed, as am I up to a point.
The meal totally rejuvenated me and I plodded on in fairly spry geriatric style, but after an hour I was reduced to rests every half an hour.
I eventually docked at Castlaudray and found the very convenient hotel du Canal.
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Wednesday, 12 August 2015
Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Canal du Midi - day 2
Day 2 Canal du Midi.
Off to a good start after communal breakfast at the Formule. As usual in France I am searching for camping gas.
After a day and a half walking there has been nowhere to buy anything.
Walking on the canal is mainly on a Tarmac cycle path with occasional possibilities of walking on alternative cinder track or traditional compacted earth. The views are similar all the way, but it is something, including the Tarmac, that I am happy with (not for Gayle I think).
I met a guy setting up his café around 10:00 am - he doesn't open till midday, but he told me about an Intermarché and a Brico about five kilometres onwards involving crossing the canal and doubling back half a km. I did this. The supermarket did not sell gas and the Brico was closed for the sacred French lunch until 2:00 - far too long to wait. I pressed on after buying and eating a grim sandwich from the supermarket having wasted petrhaps an hour and walking in all a couple of extra km's.
A bit further on I met a couple coming the other way two and a half months out from Rome walking the Compestella thing. They were Belgians and advised of a. SuperU and chambre d'hôtes 11 km's further on. It was bit far for me to walk on top of my kilometerage up till then, but they offered to phone ahead for me and book in so I accepted. Walking on this canal is about 95 per cent in the shade with the endless lines of famous plain trees. But for that, with present heat I would have no chance of continuing with this walk. The final mile and a half up a busy main road, and visiting the SuperU was at my absolute limits. I flopped in a chair at SuperU and slept for quarter of an hour soaking up the air conditioning.
At the digs I had a catalogue of good and bad news.
Yes there was a nearby "restaurant" - pizzeria - (bad)
It was closed ( perhaps fortunate)
But there was another (good)
But I it was a créperie (bad)
But there was another next door which was ok (good)
Mine hoste rang and booked me a table, although I had doubts whether I was too exhausted to eat, but I girded up my loins.
When I arrived it was Thai, but I had a good meal with lots of water and Thai beer.
The waiter served my plat principal and said " pour un homme sportif".
Sent from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Off to a good start after communal breakfast at the Formule. As usual in France I am searching for camping gas.
After a day and a half walking there has been nowhere to buy anything.
Walking on the canal is mainly on a Tarmac cycle path with occasional possibilities of walking on alternative cinder track or traditional compacted earth. The views are similar all the way, but it is something, including the Tarmac, that I am happy with (not for Gayle I think).
I met a guy setting up his café around 10:00 am - he doesn't open till midday, but he told me about an Intermarché and a Brico about five kilometres onwards involving crossing the canal and doubling back half a km. I did this. The supermarket did not sell gas and the Brico was closed for the sacred French lunch until 2:00 - far too long to wait. I pressed on after buying and eating a grim sandwich from the supermarket having wasted petrhaps an hour and walking in all a couple of extra km's.
A bit further on I met a couple coming the other way two and a half months out from Rome walking the Compestella thing. They were Belgians and advised of a. SuperU and chambre d'hôtes 11 km's further on. It was bit far for me to walk on top of my kilometerage up till then, but they offered to phone ahead for me and book in so I accepted. Walking on this canal is about 95 per cent in the shade with the endless lines of famous plain trees. But for that, with present heat I would have no chance of continuing with this walk. The final mile and a half up a busy main road, and visiting the SuperU was at my absolute limits. I flopped in a chair at SuperU and slept for quarter of an hour soaking up the air conditioning.
At the digs I had a catalogue of good and bad news.
Yes there was a nearby "restaurant" - pizzeria - (bad)
It was closed ( perhaps fortunate)
But there was another (good)
But I it was a créperie (bad)
But there was another next door which was ok (good)
Mine hoste rang and booked me a table, although I had doubts whether I was too exhausted to eat, but I girded up my loins.
When I arrived it was Thai, but I had a good meal with lots of water and Thai beer.
The waiter served my plat principal and said " pour un homme sportif".
Sent from my iPad
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Monday, 10 August 2015
Canal du Midi 1
Je suis en France.
I arrived Toulouse courtesy of Jet 2 from Manchester circa midday. I aim to walk the Canal du Midi and have a Ryanair flight booked back to Manchester from Béziers in ten days.
I took the airport bus to centre ville and leapt out when I saw the canal. A kilometre further I saw a filling station and went to try and buy camping gas. It was then that I found I'd left my wallet containing 400 Euros and all my credit cards on the bus. I did still have another few hundred Euros stashed elsewhere. A young girl customer took pity on me and drove me to the bus station. I spoke to another airport bus driver and he put the message out on his radio and my bus driver responded saying he had found my wallet. I waited another forty minutes and wallet and I were reunited. Whew ! After all I've said about my offspring.
I marched on down the canal in fairly hot conditions and by 4:00 pm I asked a guy on the tow path if there was a hotel nearby. He told me of a Formula hotel another kilometre further and then invited me onto his boat which he lived on with his daughter and dog. I was invited to freshen up and was given water and fruit juice and a pear, and we had a good old chat. I have cleared the main built up area of Toulouse so it should become a bit more countryfied tomorrow.
There is a restaurant just down the road - more later.
Photo transfer is playing up.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
I arrived Toulouse courtesy of Jet 2 from Manchester circa midday. I aim to walk the Canal du Midi and have a Ryanair flight booked back to Manchester from Béziers in ten days.
I took the airport bus to centre ville and leapt out when I saw the canal. A kilometre further I saw a filling station and went to try and buy camping gas. It was then that I found I'd left my wallet containing 400 Euros and all my credit cards on the bus. I did still have another few hundred Euros stashed elsewhere. A young girl customer took pity on me and drove me to the bus station. I spoke to another airport bus driver and he put the message out on his radio and my bus driver responded saying he had found my wallet. I waited another forty minutes and wallet and I were reunited. Whew ! After all I've said about my offspring.
I marched on down the canal in fairly hot conditions and by 4:00 pm I asked a guy on the tow path if there was a hotel nearby. He told me of a Formula hotel another kilometre further and then invited me onto his boat which he lived on with his daughter and dog. I was invited to freshen up and was given water and fruit juice and a pear, and we had a good old chat. I have cleared the main built up area of Toulouse so it should become a bit more countryfied tomorrow.
There is a restaurant just down the road - more later.
Photo transfer is playing up.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Sunday, 9 August 2015
Saturday, 8 August 2015
Why blog?
As I write here I have no concept in mind, but, perhaps by now, an idea is forming. Such is the mystery of mental process.
The cliché of staring at a blank page comes to mind.
Why should I bother if I had nothing to say at the outset? I can't answer that, except that I enjoy the process, much as others enjoy Morris dancing or composing clerihews.
I suppose there are similarities when one embarks on a walk, when unpredictable events and sights unfold as one progresses. and for which activity nobody, despite many weary attempts over the years, has managed to provide an explanation for the initial motivation and the subsequent satisfaction.
This Thursday's walk was defined the night before and I drove with the two Petes and parked the car on a grass verge with the nose up to the back of a road sign - that distinctive location failed to jog my memory.
We walked down the lane on Tarmac as far as the turning to Sands Bottom, then after a gate it became unsurfaced. Pete No. 1 announced he and I had been there before, and furthermore remembered a geocache we had found in a knot-hole disguised with a metal bolt. We found the location but the cache has been removed or closed down. Pete also clearly remembered the precise parking spot used today, exactly the same as previously.
It was only further down the lane that my memory gradually returned. I have been able to trace the previous visit to the 29th May 2014 from the date logged on the Geocaching website, but unfortunately I didn't post here about it.
I have only a feeble notion of scansion, but here is my attempt at a clerihew.
Pete No. 1
Recalled previous fun.
I pompously demurred,
Which opinion proved absurd.
The cliché of staring at a blank page comes to mind.
Why should I bother if I had nothing to say at the outset? I can't answer that, except that I enjoy the process, much as others enjoy Morris dancing or composing clerihews.
I suppose there are similarities when one embarks on a walk, when unpredictable events and sights unfold as one progresses. and for which activity nobody, despite many weary attempts over the years, has managed to provide an explanation for the initial motivation and the subsequent satisfaction.
This Thursday's walk was defined the night before and I drove with the two Petes and parked the car on a grass verge with the nose up to the back of a road sign - that distinctive location failed to jog my memory.
We walked down the lane on Tarmac as far as the turning to Sands Bottom, then after a gate it became unsurfaced. Pete No. 1 announced he and I had been there before, and furthermore remembered a geocache we had found in a knot-hole disguised with a metal bolt. We found the location but the cache has been removed or closed down. Pete also clearly remembered the precise parking spot used today, exactly the same as previously.
It was only further down the lane that my memory gradually returned. I have been able to trace the previous visit to the 29th May 2014 from the date logged on the Geocaching website, but unfortunately I didn't post here about it.
I have only a feeble notion of scansion, but here is my attempt at a clerihew.
Pete No. 1
Recalled previous fun.
I pompously demurred,
Which opinion proved absurd.
 |
| Just a pleasant garden with extensive views to the Fylde coast |
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| Big zoom to Blackpool Tower 16 miles away |
 |
| Nicky Nook summit. Our route circumnavigated this hill which we used to climb as a family evening outing when I lived in Preston |
Sunday, 2 August 2015
For the tractor enthusiasts
Cribbed from Bowland Climber's blog. He is on a walking tour in Germany - I thought this one may be a bit more unusual, but I have zilch knowledge of tractors. I have cropped this out of the larger picture - it just happened to be in the background.
https://bowlandclimber.wordpress.com/2015/08/02/king-ludwig-way-to-the-castles/
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