I met my first pilgrim!

I was walking along the towpath this morning and there was a guy coming towards me wearing a scallop shell on the chest strap of his rucksack. 'Peregrino?' I asked. He ignored that I'd just spoken Spanish, smiled and replied in French. Realising I wasn't the brightest, he spoke slowly and used basic words. He told me he was walking from St Jean Pied-a-port to Mont St Michel. St Jean is on the French side of the northern Pyrenees, so he was basically doing the French leg of my route, but in reverse. He expected it to take almost sixty days. I'm hoping to do it in half that time but I didn't say. I didn't want him to think I was totally stupid. I just wished by him 'Buen Camino', shook his hand and carried on my way beaming from ear to ear after that touch of camaraderie.

I have been walking this canal for two days now and I have only seen two boats moving on it, and one of those was a maintenance vehicle. Yet each lock has a lock keeper with their lock keeper's house. It must be a lonely occupation or maybe I'm just here at the wrong time.

I slept on the canal bank last night. As I unpacked my bivvy bag I realised I must have packed a slug in it the previous night because it looked like a used hankie. It was gross. Then this morning I put my glasses on and discovered a slug had crawled across them! I love sleeping outside but the slugs are doing a great job of persuading me otherwise, especially after crawling over my laundry yesterday. That said, I'm indoors tonight. I have hit the suburbs of Rennes and I don't fancy towpaths in the town at night. I'm probably safe to try but I just don't think I'll sleep.

Photos - lock (ecluse in French) and boat, the other boat, lunch, my bathroom and utility room this morningRead more