Back on the Chemin de Compostelle!
1556 km to go
Montpellier (Hauts de Maussane) - Montarnaud
16 km
I booked an airbnb on the northwest edge of Montpellier so we could get right back on the trail... but once we saw how easy it was to get into the city centre on those fun colourful streetcars, we decided to spend the morning in town before setting off on the trail. And we started out at the cathedral to get the first stamp on our pilgrim passports for this section of the trail.
Then we returned to our airbnb flat to pick up our bags and hit the trail! After a couple of km we rejoined our old friend the GR653 - also known as the Via Tolosana, the Voie d'Arles or, more generally and along with a bunch of other trails, the Chemin de Compostelle - in the village of Grabels.
From here the trail set off across country through the garrigue... and we soon discovered the differences between hiking in October, after six months of drought, and hiking in April after a particularly rainy start to Spring. In October, where there were supposed to be streams there were none, and we crossed many a bridge over... nothing. But in April, the trail itself had turned into a stream in many spots!
I am grateful to my new boots (Scarpa Khumbu) for getting me through all that mud!
On the plus side, all the Spring flowers are out. We came across wild tulips, daffodils and irises - flowers I didn't even know existed in a wild version!
After what seemed like a long afternoon of hiking, but was really only 16 km, we came to our destination for the evening: Gite Le Trmps d'une Pause, just past the village of Montarnaud. Having stocked up on supplies at the local supermarket, we prepared a simple meal in the communal kitchen and sat down to dinner with our hostess Cathy and the other guests: a French/Québecois couple who are spending a week on the trail, and a Korean girl who is hiking straight through to Santiago.
Only another 1540 km to go!
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