Today we hiked from Castet-Arrouy to Marsolan, France. unfortunately my Apple watch skipped a beat and lost our trail about a mile outside our destination. Luckily, JP has a Garman watch, so I will report his numbers. We hiked 12.6 miles (20 kms) in 4 hours and 38 minutes. That’s about 22 minutes per mile. My watch does say that I took 29,661 steps, climber 32 flights of stairs, and burned 2,073 calories.
In some ways, the Camino, is like Route 66 in America – filled with quirky people and one-of-a-kind oddities. Case in point – our host’s tool museum.
Before leaving his B&B, Albert asked us if we would like to see his tool museum. We agreed. (My thought was, this poor guy doesn’t get much museum business, so we should see his stuff.) He took us to a garage building behind his house that stored thousands of tools.
At the entrance to his tool museum, he introduced us to a mechanical man that he called “Charlie” (based on Charlie Chapman). Charlie was built from an old water pump. (Cute)
Inside the museum, we found thousands of old tools attached to the walls. They were neatly organized into discreet sections but the cramped space made the scene feel cluttered. There were saws and hatchets and hammers and pliers, augers and clippers and planers and wires.
As a carpenter, you could tell, the man loved his tools. He showed us a 13th century hatchet that Stephen started wielding, like a knight at the roundtable.
He also showed us some of his creations – like a British telephone booth.
And a tree that he shaped around a mirror.
Also in this cacophony of oddities, our host keeps 3 horses and a donkey. Animals have a natural attraction to JP. (Personally, I think they just like the smell of his Axe Body Wash.) But I have seen him fearlessly get close to horses, dogs, and cows.
We departed our B&B around 9:00 and headed out for our 20kms journey. We arrived in Marsolan around 3:30 after a stop for lunch and a couple of breaks. Lunch was at a outdoor restaurant where I had a meal of pork schnitzel and dauphine potatoes. I also had a Coca-cola which JP says “boosts my walking speed into overdrive”. (He might be right because I never drink caffeine.)
Instead of having dessert at the restaurant, where the server was overwhelmed by the number of people, we decided to go down the street for ice cream. I had 2 flavors. Take a guess at what the blue flavor was and send it to me in a comments. You won’t believe it. (I will reveal it in tomorrow’s blog.)
After lunch, we hiked another 5 miles to our very nice hotel. We ate dinner at the hotel which was quite pleasant.
I’m sure you are tired of my food descriptions, so I’ll sign off and get some rest tonight.
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