The End of the Beginning.

In reality I crossed the bridge in a car and perhaps that's enough? It was one bridge too far for me to walk. Strange that I looked across but never set my foot on the other side? Instead I watched the water flow from the right side of the iron structure.

The five days from Mas d-Azil to Lortet have been very demanding and I took no rest days since Carcassonne, even with Sunday's hangover, and my knees are swollen, my toes are sore, I've callouses on my shoulders from where the backpack digs in and I'm covered in an assortment of scratches, bites and something on my left thigh. Oh! I feel weary and alone.

Perfectly dark and somewhat silent space last night, except I woke at midnight and couldn't return to sleep because during the night cow bells really stick out: how I feel for cows to have them strapped to their necks forever ... never any respite until they're dead?

Woke before six and got up. Made scrambled eggs, coffee, toast and am listening to the clunk of cow bells and the roar of cars down this main pass in the mountains,: Haute Garonne.

This is it for me. The town prior to Lourdes is not one but a two stop destination, with a suggested stop between Lortet and Bagnères de Bigorre at Moulin des Baronnies There seems to be a real extended dog leg to go somewhere, but I think some hills between which would make it a touch too tough to go straight and the actual distance to Bagnères is 43.2kms. The rest of the way from here to SJPdP is still here to do another time; and I have more time for sure, but the end is here this time.

The distance is not the most important thing in this enterprise, it's more about what happens inside me, however at around 400kms in 15 days, with only one rest day (the Sunday in Carcassonne), it has instilled some amazing memories in me.

My favourite town along the way was definitely Mirepoix, with it's wattle and daub timber framed town centre, and there Christine - the host - forgetting where her car was parked was an absolute scream. It was also where I first met the fast talking couple, from St Giles down in the Camargue, who head to Lourdes: the main Catholic pilgrimage site inside France; it's time to wash up, clean up and ready for another day, but a different way.