From the lovely Hippie Campground to La Ferme Bio du Gévaudan, 14 1/2 miles

Plans were underway for this impressive railway bridge in 1878; on his walk, Stevenson met several engineers who were there to study the area.
We shared a small table with a couple from the Pays Basque; they were our age and carrying everything, camping anywhere, and accompanied by their dog. A pleasant lunch break away from the misty day.
So nice to greet horses and donkeys along the way.
Finally through the bigger city of Langogne, we found water, toilets, a place to rest, and have a snack, It was called Square Stevenson, and it was where we met Emmanuel, a fellow American who was happy to speak English with us for more than an hour! He married a woman from Belgium, and has been living in Belgium for several years. But he loves the US and still votes in our elections!
Stevenson is famous along the trail.
Our campground at La Ferme Bio du Gévaudan
Looking back at the organic farm where we camped on the night of September 17th

It had been a long walking day, and even though the man was very nice and the price was right, the ambiance was less than lovely. A barking black dog greeted us, whom the host referred to as his “chien terroriste.” He explained that his wife lived in the house pictured above and that he now lived out back with all of the cars, stored materials, and piles of dirt and gravel in the long concrete-block building that he was building which contained his massive shop (aka man-cave) with numerous vehicles and projects within. It also contained his living quarters with a nice wood-burning stove & produce from the farm-like beef jerkey & apples & pate for sale. There was a small kitchen area for us campers next to his little farm produce boutique with a counter and plug-ins for charging phones. There was a big black plastic bag filled with garbage at the end of that space which was smelling & attracting flies. I took it outside to a garbage bin and boiled some water and made some home/grown organic mint tea (graciously provided) to freshen up my interior space for the evening.

Behind all of this there was an outdoor shower which was open to the far back & fields with rather unfinished concrete. I decided not to shower. Quite a distance across the way from the shower was the dry composting outhouse, which thankfully did not stink. We hiked up the hill to our little green trailer where we slept. When he gave us the initial tour of his domain, he explained that there were lots of wolves in the area and some rare owls. He said not to be afraid if we heard them during the night.,I tried to go to bed late and get up early to avoid being in that green trailer (that he remodeled all by himself) too long.

One other woman came in late and she very kindly offered me some of her garden tomatoe and vinaigrette as we shared the kitchen area. We had very few other options that evening, and all-in-all, it was a good night. I’m trying to be able to be happy, regardless of my circumstances, and avoid complaining, so this overnight required some effort on my part.

1 Comment

  1. kathleen owens's avatar kathleen owens says:

    Gre

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