It was hard saying good bye to Mimi:(
I know she is loved by the town but she obviously wants someone to curl up to at night and being a kitty without a home doesn't give her that opportunity. I hope our story will cause one of the ladies to at least bring her in at night. We really loved this town. After calling Mimi a floosey yesterday, I suspect she would say the same about us if she knew who our bed fellows were going to be this night.Today was another marvelous day hiking. Some pictures of the day...
We came out of the woods ready to call it a day and I approached a farmer hoping for directions to a campground mentioned in my book. A gite owner told me there was no camping but in hind-site, I think he thought I was asking if we could camp there as we would find out there was an awesome campground in town. We would find out a few minutes too late however...
We approached a farmer and asked for directions to the church. The farmer pointed us in the direction and a few minutes later as we approached the church he drove beside us and at the same time so did the woman who locks the church doors at night. They both were so friendly, spoke little to no English but he did communicate the lady was offering us a place to stay this night. He kept motioning a shelter, roof gesture, with his hands. He giggled a little and we were not certain what was in store for us but we clearly were much appreciative of anything offered.
We got to her home and she showed us the barn with piles of hay! The girls went instantly to work sorting the hay out for our tarps...
These were our bed fellows...
We all slept so well, though we got to enjoy stable life at its finest with hearing all of the bodily functions cows can make...Peeing,pooping,mooing,farting... We giggled all night long, but certainly did sleep well. Honestly this was a treat!
My only concern was finding the trail the next day. Our sweet hostess communicated her son, Michel, who spoke English and made a phone call. He said, over the phone, he would come in a few minutes. Michel showed up with copies enlarged of the map and fluent English. He assured us the trail was pretty much around the corner after the mandatory climb :) The strangest coincidence is that Michel owns the campground in town, the same campground that I actually was seeking! Our beds were already set up when he offered us a bungalow at his campground free to use. Here we had the choice of sleeping in the barn or accepting his most generous offer of a bungalow at a campsite. We didn't take him up on his offer as staying in a bungalow requires someone to slightly clean up after us in ways we can not, but honestly we were looking forward to our stable adventure.
Michel came back to the barn before leaving and said his mom would like us have breakfast with them in the morning and asked what time would we like to eat. We were so excited!!!!!!!
We loved this family dearly, loved their old dogs, loved their cows, such generous, sweet spirits!
Thank you for two of the best days of our Camino ( TWO?.....yes there is more generosity to come from this beautiful, loving family!)
Dogs on the blog...
Both of the dogs owned by our hostess...
My local SPCA that I have done fundraising for once told me they didn't have a dog "delapitated" enough for me. Seems I developed a reputation after having an old totally blind dog transported to NC from Maine to add to the family and adopting a fourteen year old deaf lab. I think our Basque grandma might have the same heart for these delapitated pups....these two were loved....
