April 28: Caterpillar Camino

We have no wifi today, NOR much (any) cell signal, so this blog will be posted whenever we get connectivity again. Our stop for tonight is the beautiful, historic town of Estaing. It is almost fairy-tale like, with tawny, stone buildings and a 15th Century chateau with turrets. In the absence of telecoms, our hostel offers board games in the communal lounge area. The aesthetics are, again, a shoes-off, community-forward homestay experience.

Estaing is a tourist/hiker hub. From what we can tell, every room is occupied. Nevertheless, this does not stop the locals from closing from 2-7pm, even in very inclement weather. We drudged into town: cold, wet, thirsty and joined everyone else in the only open bar. We had excellent blond, draft beer, accompanied by the smell of wet (most-definitely-unwashed) hikers - and one actual wet dog. We were again reminded that the locals do not need tourism and tolerate it only on their own terms. That said, our hostel was charming; our room clean and dinner served by a very friendly waitress who rolled with our pidgin French in a kindly, amused way.

We were very lucky. The severe weather warning posted for today hit Toulouse and several other towns with nasty storms. We seemed to thread our way through cold, windy rain, which could have been so much worse. You will also see one picture of me, grinning like a loon and pointing at my gut. Wearing long pants in the rain results in wicking, up under my coat and, thence, existential cold throughout my torso. In the wearing of shorts, I experienced cold, wet legs, but remained dry above the thigh. It was such a wonderful feeling!

However, the photos have shown me that my lilac shorts (a santa-sac gift, Patagonia-branded, no less) are absolutely ENORMOUS! In shot after shot (courtesy of Carey) I look like one of those comedy boxers, who has read that you can’t hit below the belt. However, they are very fit for purpose and the camino is no place for vanity. Expect the enormous shorts to continue.

The wet weather brought out red-frilled, orangy-brown slugs of enormous juiciness and huge snails, with red-brown shells. Them’s eatin’ snails, we surmise, certainly they would make a substantial meal.

Until the gastropods appeared through the drizzle, this was shaping up to be the caterpillar camino. We saw huge balls of spiky, black and orange caterpillars, tussling with each other to break free of their nests and wriggle away off the path. Today, we also saw bungee caterpillars – writhing masses of hairless, yellow caterpillars, twisting, one on top the other, on silk ropes, to the ground. We managed to get a few blurry photos. We had seen the small green caterpillars ziplining down from the oaks, singularly, for several day. These, much bigger, communal “strings” are something new. A passing French walker stopped to see what we were trying to photograph and noted “the insects too are out for a pleasure walk”.