Tuesday 14th continued

Once the incredible storm had abated I left the official route, the GR 653 in Saturagues and walked along the road until I reached the Airbnb family house which I had booked. Sarah, the hostess had warned me that she would not be there and I had to hang around for an hour until her husband turned up. He took me to my room, a pink ladies room, equipped with a vanity table along with all sorts of cosmetic products. There was a radiator in the room on which I could dry my clothes that had got soaked earlier that day. That evening Yusef, Sarah’s handsome husband prepared a delicious meal for me-alone. The next morning after coffee, bread and honey, I started out using my GPS to find the shortest way to walk to Saint Gely de Fesc from where I could get a bus to Ganges then perhaps hitch-hike to Sumène where my friend Meko lives. From there Ana could pick me up and take me up the mountain to her place in Le Castanet. Again there was a weather forecast warning about thunder storms and a possibility of flash floods. On leaving, the sky was a menacing grey. I came to a busy road and with no hard shoulder walking along it was just too dangerous. At 8:00am people were going to work and there was just not enough space on the road for cars and pedestrians to use at the same. Since learning from Eric who I met on the first day that he got around hitch-hiking, I decided to take my chances hitch-hiking and after 20mins I got my first lift with a guy who said he was only going 12kms but it gave me confidence, people do stop. After that I got a lift quite quickly with friendly, chatty fellow. Another 2 more lifts and I was on the main road to Ganges. Near St. Martin de Londres, just as soon as I found a suitable spot to stand where people could stop another guy turned and said he was hitching too and stood a few metres further on. Just as I was thinking there was not much traffic and it seemed a bit unlikely that someone would stop for both of us and my backpack, he announced, “I’m going for a cup of coffee,” and walked off. Almost immediately after he left a young smiling chap picked me up and said he would take me to Sumène. As we were approaching Ganges the rain came down and I was grateful to be dry and on my way to Sumène my destination. After leaving at 8:00am I arrived in Sumène a midday, a distance of 64kms.

• Camino