Monday, Labouheyre-Lesperon
Problem with starting from Labouheyre is that few trains stop there, so had to get up for 6.35. This arrived 7.23. L. being a largish village, I expected there to be at least one cafe open, but though I wandered around for quite some time I failed to find one, though I did find a boulangerie to get something to eat.
The church is dedicated to St Jacques (as is the fountain), and has rather a curious tower (apparently a C19 semaphore tower), though it’s largely a post-medieval reworking of a romanesque building. There is now a pilgrim refuge in L.: a room in someone’s home with space for 6 people.
Having failed to find a coffee, I set off on the road S, and soon went wrong, crossing the autoroute too early - though this may very well have been my fault for not paying attention rather than any problem with the marking. I crossed on the road to Escource, but soon headed off into the forest. Though this was a longer way round than the official route, it was probably more pleasant, as I saw deer and heard woodpeckers and cuckoos rather than the roar of passing traffic.
I rejoined the official route, but detoured off to Cap de Pin for a belated coffee in one of the truckers stops there. Heard Basque there.
Soon after C de P, the route leaves the side of the autoroute (at last), and heads off along a forest track. (See Amis Landais site for route description.) Another walker was ahead of me, whom I soon caught up with and accompanied for a while. He was heading all the way to Santiago, having started from his home in the Vendée.
The track is dead straight for many km, but at the hamlet of Lesbordes the marking heads off to the left along more attractive paths and tracks. Although the skies had been cloudless early on, by now clouds had come up and I even sheltered under a tree for a short shower.
Further along, I went seriously astray by following yellow arrows which turned out to be put up by forestry workers and nothing whatever to do with the route. This led me too far south and probably added some 3-4km, which put me out of sorts. I even had to get out the compass to work out which direction I was supposed to head.
Eventually arrived in the village of Onesse at 12.30 and had a couple of beers sitting in the backyard of a small bar in the sunshine which had now reappeared. Mine host asked me if I was going to St-Jacques; I replied with my usual spiel that I was sur la route de St-Jacques but not en route pour St-Jacques.
The official route makes several detours off the road to Lesperon, and I’d originally planned to ignore these and just continue on the road all the way - there is little traffic on this road. However, I had plenty of time, and dawdled along the official route which follows attractive paths through the forest. I still arrived in Lesperon before 4.
I’d planned to stop in the small hotel next to the late-medieval fortified church (also dedicated to St Jacques), but this was shut up tight with no sign of life, so I went into a neighbouring bar for a drink. I then decided to head for the village’s other hotel, a **, but this turned out to be on the far side of the main road and a good 3km from the village, so I was rather heated and footsore when I eventually got there, to be greeted by a beaming ‘Un pelerin!’ by the owner. He told me a Dutch pilgrim had been there the night before, so I was obviously not the first to make the hike over from the village.
I took a room with a bath (€54) and wallowed in that for a long time, especially as I’d forgotten to trim my toenails before starting and one had cut into the next toe bloodying my sock.
A good dinner in the hotel - just as well, as there was nowhere else to eat! There are a couple of chambres d’hôte in the village, including one on the way in, so this might be an alternative to traipsing over to the hotel.
An advantage of travelling at this time of year is the long daylight, remaining light until after 10.
Despite going astray twice, the marking was generally very good. Because of going astray, and going to the hotel, my total walking for the day was more like 40km than the official 32km.