Day 57j: Walking the longer Way … (06/10/2019)
Unfortunately, upon arriving in L’Estrade I discovered (thanks to the kindness of the local resident pictured below) that I was not in L’Estrade at all, but rather the much smaller village of Les Enfrux — a tiny hamlet that lay on the “GR6” hiking trail that I had taken from St. Chely, NOT the Camino’s “GR65” which I should have taken instead* … :O
To make matter even more interesting, the GR6 had taken me a full 8km (roughly five miles) in exactly the opposite direction (due east) to my Walk’s required route, and the only hiking trail available to L’Estrade was the very same one I had taken the last 2+ hours to walk up … :O :O
Finally, to make matters even more complex, I had from the very beginning adopted a “rule” of sorts which required me to never retrace my steps — a guideline which demanded me to leave the hiking trail behind and walk instead along local country roads; flowing in a roundabout fashion from requested direction to requested direction (all provided by a gaggle of mostly friendly French locals) back to The Way and eventually, L’Estrade … :O :O :O
“It doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down. All that matters is that you keep getting up every time you fall.” ~ via Roy T. Bennett
*I later found out that this particular intersection of the GR6 & GR65 hiking routes in St. Chely caused a not-insignificant number of pilgrims to make the same mistake I had made — so many pilgrims, in fact, that more than one guidebook apparently explicitly warns pilgrims against the same … 😀
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