[Gocamino] Dourgne to Oloron St. Marie GR 653 trip report

[Ralph Alcorn]

Dourgne to Oloron St. Marie Sept 2009

This was a somewhat difficult and stressful trip for us. Our seventh walk on
a pilgrimage trail, we were looking at it as more of a vacation adventure,
than as a serious trek. Our plan was 20 to 25k per day and to use B&Bs and
hotels when possible, not using scarce pilgrim gite space, leaving that for
the pilgrims bound for Santiago. In retrospect, it would have been better to
plan on staying in the gites when possible, and always carrying emergency
supper and breakfast supplies. A lightweight tent would have relieved some
accommodation stress.

Some of the difficulties were unique to our trip, others you may encounter.
Starting from Toulouse would be better than starting from Dourgne.
Accommodations are infrequent and quickly filled in the area around
Toulouse. This is a fine bicycle route, as you can adapt to filled
accommodations, and just go on to the next.

For walkers it is a different matter. As a walker, you need to reserve your
accommodations if you expect them to prepare you a meal, and it is a good
idea to reserve even if you just need a bed. You need a plan for when you
can't get a place, such as a tent and food, a taxi, etc. The stages work a
little better if you can easily do 30k per day. If you are staying in a
place that provides breakfast, it is hard to get walking before 8 or 8:30.
If we couldn't find accommodations within 25k, we would opt for a lesser
distance. For 30k per day, it is best to get going by 7 or 7:30.
Accommodations are frequently off trail, so your navigation skills must be
good.

Always carry lunch material. It is very rare to find more than one place per
day where you can buy supplies, so when you hit the village of the day, get
what you need. I also suggest carrying snack material so that you have
something to eat about 10:30 in the morning and 2:30 in the afternoon. That
snack should provide lots of salt and sugar to keep you going.

We had a number of days in the 80s (ºF)and a number in the 40s, a couple of
days of rain and boot sucking mud - the rain happened to coincide with few
days of dirt tracks. Humidity very high for most of the trip. Imagine a 10
inch pie 2 inches thick attached to your foot, and a softball on the end of
your hiking stick, and that is boot sucking mud. 95% of the time is on small
paved country roads.

The people we met were delightful, the cities buzzing with activity.
However, on the trail, we saw practically no one, maybe a dozen hikers over
three weeks, including the ones we met in the few gites where we stayed. The
terrain is similar to that between Aire sur L'Adour and St. Jean. There is a
certain sameness to the landscape. The sameness made the navigation
difficult. Some areas were well waymarked, others scarce or missing
waymarks. You had to count the little side roads, as they were not labeled.
"Is this the  5th side road from the right, or the sixth? Well, it is a dirt
road. Do dirt roads count?".

When to go:
We did this trip in September. That accounts for the lack of other walking
pilgrims. In talking to our various hosts, we found that during April and
May there is a lot of pilgrim traffic - frequently filling the gites. These
are the people walking the entire route from Arles to Santiago. Many of them
carry a tent and expect to do their own meals much of the time, though some
have sent their tent home by the time they get to Oloron St. Marie.

Navigation Notes:
I have carried a small Silva compass, about 2x3 inches on all our trips,
backpacking and otherwise, and rarely if ever looked at it. This trip I
carried it and the map in my hand, and looked at it frequently. With all the
little unmarked roads, and sameness of the trail, it was important to know
exactly where we were. If we had off trail accommodations, we had to know
that we were turning off on the right road. We carried the 1/100000 IGN maps
for the trail. These are identical to the map pages in the back of the Sur
le chemin de Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, la via Tolosona, la voie du
soleil... - Francois Lepere & André Dehnel guide. (we didn't use this guide
except the maps). We carried the Miam Miam Dodo, the CFSJ guide, and the Le
chemin d'Arles vers Saint-Jacques-de-Compostelle, Louis Laborde-Balen -
Jean-Pierre Siréjol guide. We mostly relied on the CFSJ, the MMD and the map
and compass.

If I were to do this part of the route again, I would look for more detailed
maps. Excellent maps are available interactively on www.geoportail.fr but
they don't print out easily. Since we got back I've been looking for better
maps. You can get the 1:24000 IGN maps, but it is costly and heavy. There is
a website www.geolives.com that allows you to download topo maps of Europe,
and load them to your iphone or pda. You can also print them. It looks like
a possibility, but I haven't tried it.

I put a video clip out on YouTube on the Dourgne to Oloron
trip<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eMNnhEkyH4>
.
I've also blogged with a little more detail
<http://timecheck00.blogspot.com>about the trip and a bunch of photos.

Trip Notes:
1. From Toulouse, got taxi to  Gare Routiere  got bus to in Revel, the
closest point to Dourgne. From there got a taxi to get to Dourgne. Toulouse
bus schedules at http://www.haute-garonne.fr/ and the bus lines that go to
Revel are 56 and 57. Walked from Dourgne to St. Felix. Stayed at Le Cocagne
- no star room, but food and ambiance good. In the main square. The fancier
hotel is away from square.

Walked La Rigole & stayed at gite Moulin de Naurouze where GR653 hits Canal
du Midi - very welcoming and pilgrim friendly - lots of pilgrim info. Canal
du Midi info www.canal-et-voie-verte.com/

>From there walked Canal du Midi. Choice is canal with shade, water, but
paved path or GR653 with villages, no shade, and few facilities. Stayed at
La Masquière in Écluse en Laval. Nice but pricey. Nothing else available and
this wasn't far enough for the next day to work.

Took taxi to Ramonville, walked from there into Toulouse. Stayed at Hotel
des Arts a one star but centrally located and pilgrim friendly. Takes some
adjusting to get used to the toilet being visible from every part of the
room. Don't miss Augustin Museum.

>From Toulouse, took bus to Colomiers at outskirts of town, then walked to
pilgrim gite in Leguevin. Found out that next day's route had just been
changed, too many trees down in forest, and temporary route setup - not
waymarked.

>From Leguevin walked to just short of L'Isle-Jourdain at Chateau de Guerre -
hard to get to from new route - had to ask and walk thru someone's fields to
get there.

Next day on to Gimont at Hotel Le Coin du Feu - supermarket in town, but it
closed just before we got to it, 15 minutes before closing hours. After that
we paid attention. Closing hours in southern France mean when the last
employee locks the door and leaves. They might close the door to incoming
customers much earlier, also, if store is empty near closing, they sometimes
lock up and leave.

Next day was one of our favorite stays - the gite at La Croisee de St.
Cricq, just short of Auch. Very nice couple running it. We were only ones
there and shared their meal.

Then a short day into Auch at Hotel de France

>From Auch, on to L'Isle de Noe - a town on a small island between two
rivers. We stayed at Edna's Chambres d'Hotes - Mme Moody. A unique stay.
>From there walked to Monlezun and stayed with Mme Seailles - she had no
English, and we little French, but it worked out.

The next day we walked direct to Maubourguet, bypassing Marciac and
following an alternate route in the CFSJ. Only problem was that distances
and details in CFSJ weren't quite right, but map and compass got us there.
Stayed at Hotel de France.

General note on prices. Bed, dinner and breakfast at a gite or CdH for two
was about 70 euros, at a hotel in a small town, about 90 euros.

>From Maubourguet, there are no accommodations within our walking range on
the GR653, so we took the alternate route thru Lembeye. The CFSJ description
of the alternate did not match the trail at all - possibly it has been
rerouted since guide was made. Anyway, we soon realized we had missed the
alternate, due to our map and compass checking, and made our way by small
roads to our stay in Lembeye. Hotel Pelerin was not open - apparently on
owner's whim, opens and closes, but stayed with Mme Price and her daughter
about 1 km past town. Nice meal and company.

>From Lembeye, back to the GR653 at Anoye and on to Morlaas, Impressive
carvings over the church door. Again stayed at Hotel de France don't think
they are a chain - no similarities.

The next day we pass the outskirts of Pau on the way to Lescar. One of the
highlights of the trip was walking into the cathedral, tired and pack laden
and hearing the sound of the huge organ as the organist practiced. The pipes
filled the end of the cathedral, and the sounds penetrated to the bone.
Stayed at La Terrasse - wonderful gaspacho. Another pilgrim told us that the
gite was excellent, but we had already booked the hotel.

Next day to Estialescq - CdH Maison Naha - we highly recommend, due to
hostess, food and accommodation.

On to Oloron St. Marie - stayed at Hotel Alysson - too far from main section
of town and pricey, restricting food choices - suggest Hotel de la Paix as
better option.

Train back to Toulouse with a couple hour layover in Pau - went up the
nearby funicular to center of Pau - views, castle, people, restaurants, then
on to Toulouse and Hotel des Arts again. Next day fly home.


-- 
Ralph Alcorn
http://www.backpack45.com/camino2.html