Approaching Geneva

Day 16 – Sunday, August 11 – Desingy to Charly – 27 km

So I was right about the stairs being dangerous. I had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, twice, and the second time I slipped near the bottom and fell on my butt. Luckily I didn’t hurt myself. That’s a miracle right there.

Breakfast was in a different room in the house. It was in the old kitchen, and there was a huge fireplace. There were also some weapons on the wall and a suit of armor and some cool, old looking furniture. I asked if I could take pictures, but they said outside of the house only. I understand, since it’s their living space, but it would be super cool if I show pics. She said that part of the chateau was 13th century.

The whole thing ended up being 34 E, which was amazing. I think maybe it was because we shared. If it had been just one person it would have been over 50.

Anne offered to drive us to the village, and I don’t think that was cheating since I walked through the village yesterday, plus it saved me a k or two.

I expected I was looking at a 25k day, so a good walk, but not too bad. Annalee had stayed in the Gîte I was heading to today, and she said there is no food and no place to buy food in the village, so I have to get it ahead of time. She said there was a supermarket in Frangy, so that was perfect.

It took about two hours to get to Frangy. It was a warm day again, but there was a really nice, cool breeze.

I spent about 20 mins in the market. I bought a sandwich, a baguette and butter for tomorrow, and a prepared salad thing that I hope survives the heat in the backpack, and two bananas.

It was not a flat day, but as I’m getting closer to the Alps, I expect that.

I started seeing planes overhead, and I realized I’m close enough to Geneva that I can see the approaches. That is so weird!! I’m close to Geneva, but I’m not going there.

I crossed this bridge with really interesting rock formations and pools below. I realized I recognized it from a video Louis had shown me in Chanaz. He said a pilgrim had taken his bag off and PUT IT ON THE WALL of the bridge. What do you think happened? Yup, it fell off into the water below. There was no way he could get it, so he had to call some kind of rescue service. He got his bag back but everything was wet and his electronics were ruined. Amazing.

A little outside of Chaumont the GR 65 merged with the GR Balcon du Leman. I’m officially on the GRBL! This begins the part of the Camino that is really unknown, since I’m going way outside the lines of how to get from here to there. I really hope it all works out.

There was a little picnic table in the middle of nowhere at the top of a long hill, so I took advantage of the shade and cool breeze for a quick break.

I got into Charly around 3:30. It’s a communal Gîte with no reservations, so it’s first come first serve. Of course part of me was afraid it was all full, but really, what are the chances of that? I see 5-10 pilgrims a day. There was no one here. The shower was good and I washed some clothes. Hopefully they dry. It was cloudy and started raining, so they will probably still be wet in the morning. That’s not much fun.

There’s no WiFi, so it could take a while to get caught up on my blog. I’ll probably have some tomorrow at the super nice hotel, but I’ll have 4 days to post, and dinner won’t be at the hotel, so hopefully that won’t be too difficult.

My data is working well enough that I’m trying to figure out some days ahead. I had booked something on airbnb, but I realized that it’s really not that close to where I am going. I will have to figure something else out. Wednesday could be a very hard day.

I thought I was going to be alone, but Marcus from Zurich showed up at 5:15.

I was focused on trying to figure out my plan. It’s not ideal, but I will take a detour toward the lake and spend two days at a hotel and take my first rest day, then I will start the GR 5.

I ate dinner with Marcus, but I forgot to take any pictures of my salad and sandwich. Marcus is walking to Le Puy but he only has 13 days. Hopefully he makes it.

At night they project this light thing right in front of the Gîte and church. That was cool.