Day 13: Urdos

Date:	Monday, June 3, 2019
Start:	Accueil Pèlerin Communauté des Prémontrés, Sarrance
Stop:	Gite Le Compostelle, Urdos
Distance (Day**Total):	37   **   359 km
Elev Gain/Loss (Day**Total):	625/-206   **   8289 meters
Moving Time (hh:mm):	7:54
Day High Temp:	20 C

Not too bad in the beginning but then . . . More of the same from yesterday’s last 2.5 km into Sarrance. Extremely narrow trail on edge of ravine with rock wall on other side. Rocky. Steep. Wet. Slippery. Did I mention I was afraid of heights. Periodically it would flatten out and come out to a small meadow. Good, we are done with the scary part. Nope back at it within a couple of 100 meters. I have several opportunities to walk on the highway, N134. But I keep on the trail. This is a very busy, curvy mountain highway with hardly any shoulder and limited visibility. Finally, after about 32 km, 5 km from Urdos, I throw in the towel and get on the highway. Very busy. A lot of semis. Quite a few big buses. The road is so narrow, that two semis, going in the opposite directions, can barely pass each other. One has to stop as the other crawls past. Once the driver had to move his side mirrors. I’m walking against traffic and have to stop and press against the side whenever a vehicle goes by. I am very alert, listening for oncoming traffic. Some drivers appear shocked to see someone walking and a couple of times I have to jump into the gutter, which, thankfully, is dry. Surprisingly, none of the drivers express any anger. No one honks, yells or gestures their disapproval.

After what seems like a vey long time, I make it to Urdos. In one piece.

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  Bedous

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  Outside Sarrance

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  French Couple from Last Night

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  Lot of Cats in Bedous

• 

• 

  Killing Weeds in Accous

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  Urdos Church

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  Urdos

• 

  Urdos

The front door of the gite is open. The grocery store, connected to the gite, is closed. The front door leads into a vestibule to leave boots and poles. The gite is upstairs. The 2nd floor (1st floor in Europe) has the kitchen and dining area and a bathroom. The next floor has two rooms and a bathroom. There are two Polish women eating lunch in the dining area. Not much English but I gather the hospitalero doesn’t show up until 5:30 pm. I go on upstairs. I take one of the rooms. The Polish pilgrims are in the other room. Later on a German pilgrim (Hanna) joins us. She takes a bed in the Polish room and, because no one else shows up, I end up with a private room. The gite is new, nice and very clean. The beds are single; no bunk beds. They appear to be new and not smelly. The hospitalero shows up at 5:30, collects money and registers us and opens the little grocery store just for us to buy food for dinner and breakfast. There is no other store in town. There is a hotel and restaurant but it is closed. Hard to tell if it is permanent or just closed for today. I get stuff for a tuna sandwich. That’s my extent of cooking in a gite or albergue.