Report from Gayfie

Click on Sunday morning to hear Russ' voice report on our hard day of hiking on Saturday and our plans for our Sunday hike.

We did not post recordings from Saturday because it was such a hard day of hiking that we did not have the energy to record. Still we had many good experiences on our very hard day.




Walking from Beduer, we saw many old stone granaries, like the one in the photo. Wow! We also wanted to show a couple of pictures of how the trail looked in different parts of the walk from Beduer, up and down many hills on the way to Cajarc where we had a well-earned lunch of pizza and beer, and on into Gaillac, where we finally gave out and called the folks at Gayfie to come drive us the last 2.5k (1.5 miles) up the mountain to the Domaine de Gayfie where we had reserve a cabin. It was the first time we had tried to use our new European phone and we were too tired to get past the learning curve, but a woman in Gallaic took pity on us, filled our water bottles, and let me use her phone. An angel!

The sheep came charging out of the woods along the trail as we hiked. Based on all the grass around its neck, we guessed it had quite a run to get to where we were.

The town in the overview is photo is Cajarc, from atop one of the many hills we climbed over on our way to Gayfie, thus wearing us out way too much for us to trudge up that final 2.5k. Pretty though, isn't it?

Report from Faycelles

The photo show us at the restaurant in Faycelles where we had lunch on Friday. Just after taking the photo, we heard loud thunder and realized that the gathering clouds were going to require us to don all our rain gear.

Click here Friday noon to hear a recording of Russ' impressions of our first morning of hiking.


The photo of the little house shows the kinds of places we saw while walking through a town just outside of Faycelles. We also included a photo of a barn along the trail. You might notice the gathering clouds in the barn picture. They led to Russ' outfit in the one of the pictures. Just before we took the picture of him on the rain gear it was raining so hard that water was flowing over and into my shoes. In the photo of the chambre d'hotes at Mas de la Croix, our room was through the lower door. It was from the hosts there that I learned that pilgrims always stuff wet shoes and boots with newspapers because they draw off the wetness and help the boots dry. Sure enough, my shoes were almost dry by Saturday morning when we left after the hosts provided breakfast. They offered to drive us to a restaurant for pizza Friday night, but we opted to fall asleep....about 7:00.

Phyllis and Otis stayed at the same chambre d'hotes when they got to this part of the trail. Our hosts showed them our blog, which they hadn't had a chance to see before!

Report from Figeac 2

Click here Friday morning for Peg's impressions of the very first bit of hiking...and, after she says "Bye" for a little lesson in how to turn off the voice recorder before putting it in one's pocket!

The first photo shows Figeac from the top of our very first hill...a steep one that brought us up out of the city and started us on the trail. In the second one, Russ is standing on the trail as it looks soon after leaving the hill over Figeac and heading toward Faycelles, where we had lunch and met our first other pilgrim...Trevor, from Cleveland...the only other American pilgrim we met... and Mas de la Croix, where we spent our first night in a chambre d'hotes.

Report from Figeac

Click here Our First Voice Report to hear Peg's description of the trip from Gainesville to Figeac and of our first place to stay on this Chemin de St. Jacques.

Here is the view out the window as I made the recording.

Greetings From Mas de la Croix

Wonderful first day. I cannot wait to post from the recorder, but neither it nor pictures can be done from here. There was an amazing storm last night. Hail covered the ground. We were tucked in safe and happy having arrived in Figeac after 4 hours in Atlanta, 10 on the plane, 4 in Paris, 1 on another plane to Toulouse, 4 there waiting for the train, 1 to Gaillac, & there waiting for another trqin, and then the final train for 2 hours to Fige&c. We had a quiet dinner with Frenchwine, and started walking today. The morning was super nice, and we got to test our raingear all afternoon. It works, except my shoes are less than perfectly waterproof in real rain.

Wonderful. I am eager to post photos and recordings. We are recording when greqt things happen so you will heqr our real-time thoughts when I post.

A bientot.

Sorry about the French keyboard. It reqlly is not errant typing causing weird letters to appear.

Friend Peggy delivers us to the airport!

A word about the name of the trail where we are going: In English, this trail is called the Way of Saint James. In France, it is Le Chemin de St. Jacques. And, in Spain, where it ends and where the cathedral of St. James is located, it is El Camino de Santiago do Compostela. Because it ends in Spain, many people call it the Camino, regardless of where they are. We will probably be inconsistent, but it is all the same trail.

Training/Packing

Our training ended yesterday. Our mileage records differed slightly because Peg opted for yoga on some days when I decided to walk. I started sometime before October, but only began keeping records on January 8. Also, I actually walked farther than the records indicate because I did not regard walks shorter than 2 miles as legitimate training. With those limitations, the miles between January 8 and May 12 come out to 457.5. It sounds like a lot, but seems less impressive when one considers that we will be walking 140 miles in just about 2 weeks.

Our packing involved a great deal of thought, and some last minute adjustments. Our current scheme has our backpacks and most essentials packed into two duffel bags that we believe we will be able to carry on board and our belly packs. Trekking polls, knives, scissors, liquids, and some less essential things are in a very old duffel that will go into checked baggage, and will be discarded when we begin our hike. Getting home after all is finished will be another story, but we will be less concerned about the effects of lost or delayed luggage.

So after months of preparation, all we have to do now is rely on our muscles, our limited language skills, our ingenuity, and I hope a calm and relaxed approach and willingness to go wherever the Camino takes us.

Slow Food Gainesville members learn from Rosie

Another Cool Small Farm Tour

Last Sunday morning, we went to our third small farm tour. Rosie’s Organic Farm is the biggest of the three. The first, Sand Hill, where we went for the Lacto-Fermentation Workshop, only had a bit over an acre in cultivation. Possum Hollow was the biggest in overall area, with 33 acres, but all except four or five remain wooded. Rosie’s has 10 acres, almost all in cultivation. It is also the only of the three that is certified organic by FDA standards. In fact, Rosie herself has served on the government advisory boards that help set the standards.

Having grown up on a traditional farm in New Jersey, she came to Florida as a student and got a Ph.D. in plant pathology. She started farming here when her kids were little. The farm is a CSA with 130 members who prepay for an allocation of fresh crops every week of the growing season. Their website explains the CSA idea and has nice photos http://www.plowsharescsa.org/index.html

Although her husband helps after work and on weekends, there are several CSA members who volunteer, and she often has a full-time intern, essentially it is a one-person operation! She starts all her own plants from seeds, except the strawberry and potato plants. She grows, weeds, irrigates, harvests, washes, bags, and sells the produce. This is not a low-energy person.

We were again impressed that the infrastructure that moves produce from more industrialized and big farms to markets and consumers has yet to develop adequately in the local food arena. The growers put in so many hours farming that being also their own primary marketers is not very appealing…even though that is probably the most effective way to maximize their farms’ earnings.

On the other side, the consumers...both the general public and the restaurant chefs…have reasons not to want to have to seek out the produce at the farms. It is hard to know where to shop. It is impossible to know if a farm will have what you want to buy or if you will be able and willing to cook what the farm has available and abundant in a given week.

Farmers’ Markets help, but they require the growers to truck their produce in and the consumers to travel greater distances...and not be able to do all their shopping in one place. For example, one of our three Farmers’ Markets in Gainesville has parking issues. When we go, we have to pay to park and sometimes don’t find much that we want to buy. Only one of the three is within 10 miles of home. A 20-mile round trip to shop for our vegetables is not always practical. So we use the closest, which is not the one used the growers we’ve met and liked.

Chefs who want to use local food have their own set of problems. Restaurant customers are used to having vegetables that are not in season locally. They expect asparagus and tomatoes all year. They don’t expect kale and turnips, ever. And, the chefs have the same “shopping” problems as the general consumers.

I can’t help but think that in the next several years, more infrastructure is going to grow up around local food production. Not that I have a good idea of what it will look like...but someone is going to find a way to match the excellent produce grown on local farms with the eager consumers in a way that is financially and socially sustainable.

A bus abandoned by a former intern and converted to a cool kids hangout

An experimental, inexpensive greenhouse for starting seedlings

A Volunteer Harvesting

It is Almost Time

Soon we leave for the Way of Saint James. We have friends to house sit and, especially important, take care of Jake-the-World's-Best-Golden-Retriever. Yesterday, I got my trekking haircut.

Looking back, it has been quite a preparation! I had not heard of this trail until last spring. Now I know many, many details about its history, geography, and services for hikers. Since several people have just started looking at the blog, here’s a short overview.

The primary part of the trail is about 1000-miles long and about 1000-years old. Pilgrims started hiking it in the middle ages to arrive at the church in Santiago Spain where Saint James is thought to be buried.

In France it is Le Chemin de Saint-Jacques. We’ll walk about 100 miles there, in about 11 days, between Figeac and Moissac. In our backpacks, we’ll carry clothes, water, maps, shampoo, soap, toothpaste and brush, comb, sunscreen, aspirin, laundry soap, crocs, a camping towel, a sleeping bag, a jacket, rain pants, rain cape, hat, gloves, trekking poles…in all about 17-20 pounds each. We’ll stay in pensions and gites d’etape (sort of boarding houses, I think.) We’ll eat whatever they feed us, which we hope is serious amounts of cheese and wine! We’ll sleep usually in private rooms, with bath down-the-hall, but sometimes in dorms with bunk beds.

When we get to Moissac, we’ll take three trains to get to Saint-Jean Pied de Port in the foothills of the Pyrenees, which we’ll cross on foot and proceed about 40 miles into Spain along what is called there El Camino de Santiago de Compostela. We won’t get anywhere close to Santiago...at least not on this trip!

Training, getting all our gear and reservations, making plans and changing them a gazillion times have been a big part of the adventure. We hope to post “Reports from the Field” in real time.

Rain Capes for the Camino

In addition to our waterproof jackets and pants, we decided we needed rain coats that would keep our backpacks dry if it rains. So here they are! Now, I hope we don't ever get rain, but we are ready. The hoods were so big they fell over our faces, so I sewed some velcro strips on to hold them back in place.

Crocs

I got these plastic shoes as a second pair to bring along on the European trek. They are light and surprisingly comfortable. They should do for lounging around after long hikes, and might do in case blisters make it necessary to take a break from hiking boots.

These shoes have become very popular recently, although I think they must trace back to some of Walt Disney's early work. From the front, at least, they look like the shoes Mickey Mouse used to wear.