Day 26 Arzacq-Arraziguet to Maslacq

We had breakfast at 0700 as we were ging to meet the team at 0730.

We had breakfast and said goodbye to Jean Pierre our wonderful host.

We met Jean and Jean Michelle and were on our way.

It had been raining heavily overnight and was forecasting to do the same later.

We were soon back onto tracks.

There was to be no vines today.

Dog on a blog and what a beauty.

A pilgrims tree.

On we walked.

The countryside was beginning to look like the Camino of three weeks ago.

What a beautiful old watermill.

At last the sun came out as we approached  Matilas, we were to do a lot of climbing and descending today.

We were to walk 25 miles today and only came across one cafe and no shops.

The camera never really shows how steep the ascends or descents are.

Now that is a beautiful ugly bird.

We stopped at Fichous-Riumayou for our 5 mile stop.

I noticed dark clouds moving in from the North.

Then the inevitable happened.

It hammered it down.

It was around this time I noticed my right boot had split along the sole line, my lovely boots that had looked after me throughout the Portuguese and 350 miles of the Le Puy were about to let me down big time .

At last the rain stopped and off came the wet weather gear. Well it came off for brief period.

We stopped in the middle of nowhere for lunch, thank goodness for my penknife that I have managed not to lose over three caminos!!!!!

I was tempted !!!

Flobber flobber dob dob, memories of the flowerpot men came flooding back.

Now that dates me!!

We eventually arrived at  Arthez-de-Bearn which is a days walk in its own right and we decided to press on.We had not seen Jean for about 4 hours .

We stopped in the square at a cafe and prepared ourselves for the last leg.

It is at  this time I remembered I had some Superglue in my rucksack and I set about repairing my boots and much to my delight they are back in business, well at least in the short term .

What a wonderful moment as we left the town and looked to the south and saw  the Pyrenees for the first time, the end of this amazing walk was in sight.

We pushed on for the next five miles.

This could have been a barn on The South Downs Way.

Spot the socks .

Only two miles to go.

After 8 hours of walking we arrived at our hotel at Maslacq.

We were exhausted but elated !!!

Stats for today

Distance covered 25 miles.

Distance to go 45 miles , did I really say that !!!!

 

Steps taken 54500

I cannot believe the end is in sight.

We still have some testing hilly days ahead of us, but no more long lengthy walks.

We were just about to go to bed when we met these French wags.

So much for an early night.

A long Blog for a long day .