A rebel without a clue.

Straight ahead morning towards Neufchâtel en Bray, where I think I may struggle to get a reasonably priced bed for the evening, even if one is available in this tourist town. Normandy definitely is geared towards gastronomy and hospitality. It's beautiful, but not a million miles off Sussex or Kent in feeling and look... As I am heading north now, and not to Rouen, I wonder if I shouldn't head over the channel in the morning? Call it a day? Ideally walking to Dieppe Wednesday and Thursday before the ferry on Friday morning would conclude this unusual few days walking during a heatwave... There are buses, but not until 5pm and at 13:45 I'd just be drunk, and probably miss the bus. So auto-stop? ... Yes. I hitched. If I was younger, and spoke better French, the girl who was going home from LeClerc towards Dieppe and who dropped me on the harbour side, would've had made us very happy. But she stopped to take me forward and didn't need to take me all the way, I was prep...

Thoroughly exhausted today. Unlike me to feel defeated by something when walking, but the relentless warmth is difficult. Last year I had a similar experience coming down to Deltebre in Catalonia - that was along the coast line so there was always a coastal breeze, but this time the sun beats down and the humidity increases. It's all too much? I think I had a little heat stroke last evening. I decided to take the hotel up on demi-pension and could only manage two of the three courses. I think I was gone to sleep before my head hit the pillow? But it was extremely warm in the room so I woke some time later with a slight headache. It went with a little water, but now, as I face breakfast, I don't feel like getting all my stuff together and walking too far to God knows where in 28 plus heat and complementary humidity... It's northern France in early June... Had a proper cleanse. Hotels which have baths shouldn't be ignored? The breakfast was good and I feel semi normal - f...

Feeling like I couldn't manage another morsel - not even a wafer thin mint - so is it always rude to ask them not to give you a dessert? Could I please take it with me tomorrow if refusal is disgusting? 

A mighty thunder storm overhead during the night. Slept peacefully until then. Around 7pm ate the fayre provided by the sœurs, then directly after returning the tray with used plates, cutlery etc. Retired. Sober since Friday. Hopefully this will be a proper clear-headed day along the way? The thunderstorm may have reduced the lunchtime temperature? Along with the chirping of birds I have the mighty call of a peacock as the elderly sœur opens up the eglise. All packed and ready for day three. This time I have come away to remember a before the evil of the previous few years where I have turned to alcohol as a substitute for reality. It's untruthfulness has corrupted me. I await now petit dejeuner. They gave me vinegar for the stings I'd received on my shins, walking a fair distance through talk grass, nettles, brambles, etc, as I stumbled into Feuquieres around 4pm.  Confronted by impenetrable rapeseed six feet high, where there should be a path, I decided to plunge through and ...

Flaxseed and coughing up the dust which I imagine I inhailed from the last remnants of the walnuts in the bag? Up from one river valley to the pasture and chasing bullocks, heifers and protective mothers. Down towards Grandvilliers and the end of today? Never! In Grandvilliers nothing was grand, but I grabbed another Turkish Kebab, and I think this Assette Mixte was better. The salad was fresher, the sausage was more meaty. But two kebabs in two days! At least I aren't as exhausted today as I was Saturday. This evening I am staying in an out building once more next to a small nun/sisters home. And I know I have found a Camino rhythm. Only in France. At first I tried the zed-bed and I think I could just about manage it, although it's narrow. Then I took the large cushions off the sofa - they looked grand but they sloped to the right and there were two terrible ridges: then I thought I could cope with the Zed-bed, but just then the Sœurs came to take away my passport and saw the ...

Awake quite naturally at 6am, French time, the dawn chorus below me. The chirping of the sparrows in the hedge and the hoots of the geese in their penned enclosure. Have discovered a few bites from yesterday. Walking through forests these things happen? Was mentally and physically exhausted this most of yesterday afternoon/evening but found sleeping surrounded by the noises of nature difficult, however by 9 all was pretty quiet and I was in and out of snoozing. After closing the window and drawing the curtains that was it. Pitch black until the moon lite the way to the toilet once during the evening. Another day going God only knows where and with what fortune? I don't mind and I have no choice but to keep putting one foot in front of the other? On El Camino one must surrender to it ...

Ouch... Forgot that those steps were very steep in the terraced house and very nearly ended up in Urgencies, once more, as I saw myself as a pile of broken limbs at the bottom on the first floor. Luckily, or unluckily, I am now walking 30kms with a busted left foot. To stop myself falling I flung myself against the wall and collided with the step and my left foot - the one which is already very painful! Mainly walking on roads through suburbia until one park prior to the underpass below the main road to Rouen and then I am in the countryside. There is a feeder stream Selle by my left side, but I am still on the road. Cuckoos in the woods and fields of ripening wheat to my right. Left foot sore, but ok - for now! ... I could go no further. As I approached Conty the restaurant on the left was closed so I had to continue onto the crossroads into the village and hope the Auberge was stil serving food. After stumbling passed a Turkish kebab place I quickly retraced my tracks and went inside...