Pilgrimage from Grenant to Oiselay-Et-Grachaux 28/06/07

Noel had to leave for work at 06:00 so it was a 05:30 wake up call. He made me a wonderful breakfast but since he didn’t speak any English the conversation was quite limited.

I was in great spirits as I started walking and managed to get about 10kms before having my first rest. I wanted to get within about 20-25kms of Besancon so I could arrive there by Friday lunchtime. This would give me time to track down Dan.

When I left Grenant I was under the impression that Besancon was only about 60kms away. This meant that I was planning to walk 35-40kms today.

While I was having my rest I started calculating the kilometres on my map. Every time I did Besancon was getting farther and farther away :( It ended up being about 80kms from Grenant! Lucky I had an early start. I was now looking at walking 55-60kms…

I tried to make 30kms before lunch but it wasn’t to be. At 26kms my legs said enough, so I set up for a picnic lunch. I was soon fast asleep and woke up freezing cold. Putting my thermals on and jumping into my sleeping bag soon fixed that problem and I ended up sleeping there for 3 hours.

It is strange though…here I was, the middle of a summer day in the South of France, wearing thermals and wrapped in my sleeping bag. Something was just not right!

When I started going again my walking legs had done the runner, so I was left to hobble. I started getting blisters and it wasn’t looking like I was going to make the 55km mark.

Another 5kms on and my legs came good again. This was a relief. I still had plenty of time so I rested a lot and ended up walking around 56kms.

I found an empty paddock at 22:00 and collapsed! I was buggered!