Another World

Vingtième jour - Monday 6th July, Sauvelade - Navarrenx - 14.4 klms (running total approx 360.2)

Early in the walk we passed many signs with various philosophical statements or sayings. They were all in French, and whilst I translated a couple just for fun, most of them are simply sitting in my phone as a "tomorrow" project. And then today, very early into the day, I passed the sign "Another World is Truly Possible", which gave rise to today's title.

It's a gentle exhortation of hope in an increasingly divided world. It's probably unrealistic, but then I've always leaned towards my optimistic side, and even if that isn't at all realistic, I'm not going to temper my stance on that one.

The sign gave rise to many of today's walking thoughts. It has also sewed the kernel of an idea which I'll develop over coming months in respect of an unresolved relationship matter. I'm not going to detail that here - too personal for an e-world announcement - but I record this as a reminder to self.

Another aspect of the Another World theme came from the long and thoughtful discussion we had with psychiatrist Dr Charles, with whom we walked all day. We continued last night's discussion on Macron, and then the myriad interracial and intolerance problems Charles sees in France. Complex stuff, which I won't attempt to document for time and space reasons. I'm sure that J will help me recall the details of Charles's position at some later time.

It was a short walk today - only 15klms or so - and I think my "thirds" hypothesis from yesterday is holding up, using myself as a one man control group. No analgaesics today, and almost straight through non stop (not quite, but almost).

Fewer house photos today. More mountains, some beasts. All very beautiful:

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/7ecab3_5dc71fa907614f98ab335dc22476c08c/file

Which brings us to Navarrenx. Fabulous walled town with a history going back to the 9th C, maybe. As we approached the town a Gendarmerie car, replete with two gendarmes, appeared and asked where we were going, where we were from (both today and originally) and if we were OK. As we were walking with Charles the conversation was in French, and he answered for us, at which stage the driver asked "what part of Australia are you from?", wished us au revoir, and left. To the best of our knowledge it was primarily a welfare check, which was nice.

There's way too much about Navarrenx for me to write down - so the easy way is to direct you to wiki, here. But in summary, town possibily dates from around the 800s, bridge built in 1188, castle in the 13th C and destroyed in 1523, walls built 1540s, assorted battles and skirmishes between and since.

Apart from the ramparts, which are mostly in very good shape and encircle nearly the town, the remnants of the moat are impressive. I can't really imagine the sheer manpower involved in digging them out.

Here is some of the wall and moat, and les portes, and the town, in pictures:

In this first picture, the brown line on the map shows the ramparts as they are today

We leave via the bridge tomorrow.

And as ever, some selfies, the first with Charles, our walking companion for the day ...

Tomorrow is a moderate day of some 20klms. The ever changing weather forecast had the temperature as high as 40 tomorrow, but the latest appears to be the mid-30s. The max peaks in the late afternoon (4/5/6 pm), and all being well we'll be safely in tomorrow's accommodation by 2pm latest.

Until then ...

Oh, and a p.s., just in case anyone might be concerned. The reported wildfire (bushfire) in the Pyrenees is a long way from us, probably some 400 or so kilometres.