Entries this day: Gin_in_Gauriac

Gin in Gauriac

14 August 2001

From:      gin
 Subject:  Gin in Gauriac
   Date:   Tue, 14 Aug 2001 02:48:01 

Hello gods and goddesses!  i think i will start there
since it will be a reoccuring theme.  I figure that we
are all attached via something greater than ourselves
and probably equally yet uniquely.  Since I have so
much thanks to give I think it is more correct to
thank you all so the message will be more directly
delivered, OK!  I bow down before each and every in
gratitude and celebration.  I learned how to say
"Fairy Tale" in French today.  A very timid woman who
is an immigrant from Romania asked me how my trip was
going.  I had been thinking for days that it is rather
like a renisance fairy tale, with a knight in shining
armor and grand adventures every day and occasional
perils and sleepy nights on piles of fresh hay and
kind and loving people along the merry way and more
shooting stars than i can count and so on...
My good friend from Holland, "Ron who loves the sun"
parted via a blue mercedes that stopped for us in the
rain a week ago.  I have had bad experiences
hitchhiking in the rain, and the chances of getting a
ride with two people are less than with one, but I did
not get in, i just confirmed that the next stop was
the train station.  I am such a closure junkie that a
swift good-bye was like donating blood-uncomfortably
unloading precious materials as quick as possible.   
Altough I love traveling alone for reasons that i will
forever disclose the comfort of having somone to watch
my back and cuddle with and hold hands with and gather
fire wood and be the man for my woman was and is and
will be such an earthly pleasure that i revel in the
experience and the thought.  I thank the universe for
sending him to me and i feel fairly confident that
even if he had known what was in store, the flying
dutch adventureman in him would still have joined me
for the walk.  He walked me from the south of the
north to the north of the south of France, in very
good form and excellent humor, a big round of ovations
and several "bravos!", a kiss and a hug and a note of
the sincere courage i know it takes to submit oneself
to the wild world and the unknown.  Thanks brotha', it
was a pleasure i will never forget!  It took several
days to rehabilitate, and to settle back into the
silence and certainly coax the little girl in me to
come out to play, we have such fun together!  
Of course the first night that i was back on the road
by myself again i found the most unbelievable place to
camp.  There are not that many mountains around here,
and this was not by French standards a mountain, cause
i was to the top in 15 minutes, but the hill was
decorated with vinyards and freshly plowed wheat
fields, with huge piles of wheat and hay to nest in. 
The view over the surrounding countryside of forest
and farm land and sunflower fields and corn fields and
the little ancient towns that speckled the other hill
tops, and the sky and the feeling of freedom in the
wind with my tent planted on the hay on the very top
of the french hill on the mild summer's eve  was a
gift that i felt the bitter sweet irony of that it was
for my eyes only.  Ron told me many times that no one
would believe him about our adventures. Akin to the
Barron von Munchhousen- who really did unbelievable
things on his adventures, but of course no one
believed him when he recanted his stories.  yep, gin
from Munchhousen.  So, slowly I tread towards
Bordeaux, had i even walked backwards for 4 hours a
day i would have already been there, but  this last
week has been interesting.  It took me a couple of
days to get back into the swing of walking 8 hours a
day, cause i don't think Ron and I obsessed with
fanitical hiking, naturally. ( Alone there is not much
else to do between naps.)  I had a 35
kilometer day and camped in the woods behind a fence
and a no trespassing sign that- made me feel
comfortably protected for some reason.  The next day i
got up after the rain stopped and hiked another 25
kilometers to find myself back in the same spot!  This
was a true challenge, and an obstacle that faith and a
small bottle of cognac helped cure.  I call these
zones the twilight zones, and this is not the first,
but the best!  The next day i finally made it 15
kilometers down the road to Blaye (meaning glad in
Dutch) and called my good friend in Ariege (very south
of France in the Pyrenees mountain range) and she told
me she is making good money playing celtic and
bluegrass music for large crowds with her fiddle and
her man.  She also offered me her mountain home for
the winter, which is a different house than I was
offered before- this house is only a 20 minute hike up
the mountain instead of a 4 hour one (although the 4
hour hike is worth the view). 
That is my good news for my mother and any other
adventurer who thinks they can handle the extreme
mountain winter for a week or two.   So, after i
started out of Blaye i made it barely a mile and ran
into this crazy bus, a one-of-a-kind Alps bus with a
Zurich license plate.  I stopped to say hi in Zuri
german and some germans stopped as well. We sat around
all night speaking german, zuri german, french and
english drinking as many varieties of alcohol and
filling the night with laughter.  The next morning we
had breakfast, in good suisse and french fashion and
eventually parted.  I didn't even make it a mile
before my small road turned into a vineyard.  I asked
a family that was in their yard which way i should go
to avoid the highway and they kindly invited me in for
a hangover cocktail, which i declined for a cola. 
When they discovered i was a pilgrim on the "Route du
St. Jaques du Compostella" in galicia,spain- they
quickly called their neighbor who had walked the trail
some years back while overcoming cancer.  After a nice
lazy saturday afternoon with that family, i was
escorted to the pilgrims house where they promptly
invited me to stay for a couple of days.  Even though
it is slow, i learned while living in in Landcon
jungle to never refuse an offer of hospitality, it is
rude and offensive if it is made sincerely.  They were
so sincere I was in the bath tub as my clothes were
washing in nearly boiling water in no time.  My new
washing method is very hot water only- and all my
clothes are dark(to hide the dirt).  They were kind
enough to put me to work, cause i really hate to stay
for more than one meal if i can't do something
productive and helpful around the house.  I was a
gardner for a glorous day, and there were so many
tomatoes in their garden, it was fantastic.
Scrumptious!  They wanted me to stay longer, but i
hate to overstay my welcome, even though the little
girl i played with next door begged me to stay a week
and i could have found lots of work in their garden, i
departed.  I probably made it 4 miles today on my
way south, really starting to believe my backpack
weighs 40 kilos, when an elderly gentleman said
something i wasnt familiar with.  I asked what it was
he said and he said "you are beautiful",  people are
always shocked by my beauty, i mean the very large
back pack i sport in the middle of the sunniest summer
days.  So he took me by the arm and invited me in for
a glass of water.  His son and daughter in law with
his grandaughter came home later with the initial
surprised statement something along the lines of "lets
look at what the cat dragged in", this old guy doesn't
get much respect around here, but he is divine.  These
people are fascinated as well with the grand
pilgrimage and being Texan is not the worst american
origin, and most generously they offered me dinner and
a shower and a bed and the internet for the whole
night!!! And we all know by now my long winded run-on
motor electric correspondence could take all night.  
This is France, the people are golden, the culture is
magnificent and it is an honor to finally understand
most of what is being said.  I even had a deep
conversation today as well as write for my first time
in french!!! ! It is poetry, and they express
themselves with that in mind.  Thanks for everything
everybody and pass it on please!
     I began my pilgrimage toward Le Mont St. Michelle
two months ago today(13th),  and set out for spain
from there on the 14th of June. When i set out the
purple fox glove were in bloom and i passed thousands
of happy daisies every hour.  Now that i am in the
south the roadsides and pathways are alive with thick
mint patches, marjoram, fennel, rose hips, sweet black
berries hanging by the ton off of everything, and
wildflowers with rainbows of varieties.  This is wine
country, and the square miles and miles of grape vine
smiles are turning purple! I walked through the cognac
region and did not buy special cognac cause they only
sold it by the big bottle, but i did get an almond
cognac aperitif, and it was really good in coffee.  I
have to admit that i pulled a big "duhhh" and did not
walk through Roquefort (like the blue cheese) but
Rochfort.  Ron and i had a great time in that town,
and we still celebrated by the river with a blue
cheese and a red wine and then some.  Today i decided
i will head south east toward St Girone in Ariege
instead of walking along the coast toward the Basque
Country and then through the whole mountain range back
east.  This will cut off several hundred kilometers
and is the more intelligent decision (i tell myself),
i might walk the canals to the Pyrenees.  Anyway,
Bordeaux is only 40 Kilometers form here, and i hope i
have not ruined my lucky streak with the french
hospitality by telling ya'll about it. Sometimes
things are too special to talk about, it kind of
interrupts the magic flow, but this is probably part
of the flow, so like i say "let it go"!   love
ya'll...Ultreia            gin