50 Days of Camino

Kevin Soltysiak's travel log of the way of St. James, the "Camino de Santiago"

Monferran-Savès — Lussan

Most of the third day is also lost somewhere in my memories, except for the events of the end of the day. Before that, we walked through Gimont and L’Isle-Arné, and then walked some more until we were around Lussan.

We were looking for a nice spot to plant the tent, and we found a lake nearby using google maps which seemed like a good candidate, and should have looked close enough to the lake of the first night. At this point, my blisters were becoming really painful in the day: each break meant that I had to get used to walk on the blisters again and so I was slow for a few minutes. Between that and the exhaustion from walking a few days… Let’s just say we wanted to find that lake quickly.

And we found it! Only to realize it was not a good spot at all. No flat ground around the lake, and even without that the ground was bad and uneven. But Loïc noticed a guy swimming in the lake, and once he was out he went and asked him if he could point us to a better spot close by.

Turned out the man was a farmer and he told us we could camp on his land. Better still, he was going to pick us up with his car so we wouldn’t have to walk! Oh the joy. He came back fifteen minutes later and told us that he had a spare bed we could use if we wanted to. Half an hour earlier despair was setting in, and now we had a bed to sleep in !

The night kept getting better and better. We helped him with some quick tasks and then he cooked for us, but not before letting us have our first showers since we started walking. He talked to us about his lands and what kind of vegetables and fruits he is growing and selling, making for an interesting and enlightening evening. He had a ham that was so delicious that it became a running gag between Loïc and I, and a point of comparison for all subsequents hams… I’ll admit though, I wasn’t quite happy with a stranger holding such a big knife close to me. But well, the ham, the meal, and the bed made up for it.

And so much wine. Between the full meal and the red wine, we were knocked out and ready to sleep way before our host. I’ll always keep this evening in mind, and I hope Guy (our host) fares well in his endeavours. God knows being a farmer isn’t the easiest way of life nowadays.