Joanne's long walks: Road to Home 2023 Day 12: Bapaume - Bernafray Wood (Montauban-de Picardie)

The average life expectancy of an infantry subaltern on the Western Front was, at some stages of the War, only about three months; by which time he had been either wounded or killed.

- Robert Graves, Good-Bye To All That

This morning I left the Via Francigena to take a four-day detour through the Somme: two days to walk from Bapaume to my great-grandfather's grave in Thiepval, and two days to walk back from there to the Via Francigena at Peronne.

Thanks to the Fédération Français Randonnée, I found a path that will take me to Thiepval, the GR de Pays Bataille de la Somme, and an excellent guidebook to the trails in the region from the boutique of the Fédération Français Randonnée.

But today I decided to find my own trail to get from the Via Francigena to the GR de Pays, from Bapaume to Bernafray Wood, where I had booked dinner and a bed at a bed and breakfast establishment close to the cemetery. It looked easy: there is a minor road leading directly there from Bapaume, in less than 13 kilometres. This would cut several kilometres off the route I would have followed if I stayed on the Via Francigena as far as Rancourt and joined the trail there.

How the GR de Pays Bataille de la Somme (yellow) connects with the Via Francigena (green)

I stopped at the Intermarché supermarket on the way out of Bapaume to stock up on lunch supplies. Coming out of the supermarket parking lot I made a snap decision to walk by a slightly less direct route that would take me past more Commonwealth war cemeteries and the Newfoundland Memorial. As I was turning back in order to take this route, I heard someone call my name: it was Krishna, the Bengali Indian/Australian pilgrim whose blog I have been following. She had also been following mine and she recognised me! It was nice to meet her in person, however briefly!

I followed my new chosen path, which initially coincided with the Via Francigena, to Beaulencourt Cemetery, where I stopped to pay my respects.

It was clear from the plaque at the cemetery gate that I was walking along the line of the Western Front, as well as the border between the Pas-de-Calais and Somme regions of France.

I have now passed the seuil de Bapaume, and the flat landscape of vast fields studded with wind turbines reminded me very much of the other end of the Via Francigena, in Puglia between Troia and Bari... funny that the stages two weeks from the northern end of the Via Francigena should look so much like the stages two weeks from the southern end, like a pair of bookends for all the varied terrain in between!

Across the ploughed fields I spotted the Newfoundland Memorial. Now Newfoundland holds a special place in my heart because I went there at 16 on a high school exchange; I think our school chose Newfoundland because it was the farthest place you could travel and still be in Canada! It took us thirteen hours on a series of four connecting flights to get there with government-subsidised plane tickets. It was quite an adventure!

I went back to Newfoundland and hitchhiked across the 1000-kilometre-wide island when travelling across Canada with my husband in 1988. We arrived in St. John's at midnight, called the family of the girl who had been billeted with me on the high school exchange, and they hosted us in the capital city and took us out to Cape Spear, the easternmost point in Canada. Then we hitchhiked back across the 1000-kilometre-wide island from east to west. Newfoundland must be one of the easiest places in the world to hitchhike: drivers stop and offer you a lift even if you're just walking beside the road with a backpack on. Some of them invited us for a drink, a meal or even to stay over for a night or two. So that's why Newfoundland has a special place in my heart!

The Newfoundland Memorial commemorates 120 soldiers of the Newfoundland Regiment who lost their lives, and 129 more who were wounded, in the Battle of Transloy on this very spot, on October 12, 1916.

The plaque about the Newfoundland Memorial says it represents a caribou, but I think it's a moose, or ought to be, because there are more moose than people in Newfoundland!

From the memorial, Rue de Caribou brought me into the village of Gueudecourt, where a beautifully situated picnic table on the village green convinced me to take an early lunch break.

From here, a dirt track through the fields where gigantic tractors and other farm machinery were being used to plant potatoes took me to Bulls Road Cemetery.

I always open the box containing the cemetery register, flip through it, and sign the visitor book. It's interesting to read other visitors' comments, too.

The nearby village of Flers, where tanks were used in battle for the very first time, has its own monuments to the fallen, independently of those set up by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

More walking along a dirt track through the fields brought me to the village of Longueval, where I took a brief detour to the South African Memorial and Museum, and learned more about the battle at Delville Wood.

Longueval after the battle

Longueval today

Delville Wood after the battle

Delville Wood today

Inside the South African Memorial and Museum

Delville Wood cemetery

I had left my backpack with the friendly South African custodian at the reception desk and café, and when I went back there were two Brits sitting outside enjoying a nice cup of tea: a battlefields tour guide from London and his client. We got talking and had our picture taken together. It's surprising how many British people come over to visit the cemeteries and memorials here - there are almost more British than French cars on the road, plus taxis and minivans taking visitors on battlefield tours.

Just a few more kilometres across the fields was my destination for the evening, Bernafray Wood Bed and Breakfast. It's located in what used to be the train station of Montauban-de-Picardie, while the owners Christine and Jean-Pierre live in the former station-master's house next door. The Albert-Péronne Ham train line that passed through Montauban-de-Picardie station opened on April 1st, 1882 and closed to travellers and goods on January 1st, 1950; Jean-Pierre's grandparents purchased the buildings on the property in 1965.

The bed and breakfast rooms in the former station have a shared kitchen with a microwave oven, toaster and kettle, and Christine can provide dinner for a small additional fee. I opted to have dinner brought to me and was served a delicious homemade pumpkin soup, fish with rice and the ever-present French beans (I now realise why they're called that), and one of those chocolate cakes with squidgy fudgy stuff in the middle.... you can tell most of Christine's customers are British, because she served it with custard!

At first I thought the sign over the kitchen sink was a mistranslation... and why anyone would be collecting shells, in the middle of the woods this far from the seashore... until I saw some relics and shells in a glass case and realised what kind of shells they were talking about!!