Day 6 Aire sur l’Adour to Miramont, 17km

When I signed off last night we were about to leave our gite - Maison des Pèlerins - for a pre dinner stroll in Aire sur l’Adour when Isabella told us there were people downstairs to see us. We couldn’t think who that could possibly be. But as we made our way downstairs, we had a fleeting thought that maybe it was the German couple we’d spent some time with. Perhaps we’d mentioned where we were staying?

A few short minutes later we could not have been more surprised to have seen our friends (from Brisbane, Australia) Michael and Yasmin. Michael is my brother Michael’s dear long standing friend since school days. And through that connection, The French and I have enjoyed time with them and count them as friends. We knew that Yasmin and Michael had recently flown in to Toulouse for a driving holiday in France followed by a cruise departing from Rome. As The French and I were leaving for this walk on 1 October, there was no thought that our paths would cross. Little did we know …

As it turned out, M and Y didn’t know we’d already left Lectoure. Yesterday morning they saw that it was not so far from Toulouse (120 kms) so they decided to drive there to surprise us. Minor detail … they didn’t know our address. Once they arrived they sent a message to my brother Michael (who is also walking a camino in the north of Spain at the moment, so is in the same time zone). We had seen him just a few weeks ago. They asked him for our address in Lectoure but he didn’t know and he told them that in any case we had left on the previous Sunday to go walking to Santiago. Hhmmm.

… it’s now the afternoon of the 8th and we have had barely any wi fi signal the last few afternoons and again today. So I will leave for another day the story of how M and Y found us at Maison des Pèlerins in Aire sur l’Adour - other than to thank them for going to so much effort to give us this wonderful surprise 😎😎🙏🙏❤️❤️

Postscript: finally back here to solve the mystery of how Michael and Yasmin found us. Having driven to Lectoure, and discovered we were not there, they enlisted the help of my brother Michael to locate us. As he’s walking another camino in Spain at present, he was in the right time zone to respond.

Meanwhile The French and I had arrived in Aire sur l’Adour and were enjoying an ice cream before heading to our gite, when a what’s app message arrived from brother Michael casually asking where we were stopping for the day. When I replied, he asked if we were staying at the Chapel des Ursulines. These questions didn’t arouse suspicions, as we had both walked this path before and stayed at the Chapel.

When I replied that we were staying at Maisons des Pèlerins, he passed that on and dear Michael and Yasmin got back in the car in Lectoure and drove another 100 kms to find us. When they arrived at Maison des Pèlerins, as luck would have it, Isabella and Alejandro had one last room available. A few minutes later she came to tell us there were visitors here to see us. And, just a short time later, we were all together enjoying the communal pilgrims dinner. The next morning Michael and Yasmin sent us off with a ‘bon chemin’, ‘buen camino’ and we wished them safe travels and bon voyage. It really was a super surprise. 🙏Read more