I haven't been able to post in these last few days as I was too busy getting ready to go. I finally got the trekking/carrying gear for Justin. I got it from a really nice chap in Creances, only fourty kilometres away from home and after a brief course on how to fit it to the donkey by Michel, the man in question, I put it on my friend's back and he did not mind one little bit. This is really amazing... he is so cool when it comes to first times. I found a relatively small enclosure to practice some donkey whispering and he seems to trust me one hundred per cent after a really fast join up - follow up session. Anyway, after a few miles of having just the "cross trees-whatever-the-name-is-in-english-can't-find-it-anywhere..." on his back, yesterday, Saturday, I loaded the two big bags with fifty two kilos of "stuff" plus six kilos of wood, nice smelling leather and cotton on my Justin's back and off we went. First stop, seven hundred metres away at Sebastian and Stephanie's straw house, to say goodbye and the time of a picture with their daughter Lily. Second stop, three hundred metres further, when we met another nice villager and his family admiring the trio and wishing us a good trip. Plan was to reach St Sauveur-le-Vicomte, sixteen kilometres away or which ever point Justin would show signs of tiredness. I am amazed at this middle aged donkey's attitude. I think that in these days and age we should really consider using this very friendly and willing animal more. It is so simple and you can do so much with them... lawn and hedges cutting, load carrying, cart pulling, ground working, fertilising the garden, guarding (he shouts when somebody new arrives but not if it is the neighbours...) and much more than all that is his friendliness. You should see how gentle he is with kids. I have owned quite a few horses and noticed a difference of attitude when dealing with adults or children. My own beautiful daughter who made it to the top when she was competing in horse vaulting (British championship, Gold 2000 and Bronze 2001 with the Pakefield Riding School) or working her mare or poney would have been seriously injured many times if her mounts had not taken care of her, sometimes it was really plain to see.
Anyway, we set off in this beautiful spring day, sunny but with a gentle westerly breeze that was ideally refreshing for the start of a long trek.
Once on the green lane, Gamin scouting in front, I was enjoying this strange feeling of stepping into the unknown, being "on the road again" and as excited as a schoolboy going to summercamp... with just "ma bite et mon couteau" (a rude but not too rude french expression meaning just my dick and a knife...) and fifty kilos of stuff... that I did not have to carry myself. I have travelled by car with far less in the boot... L'Aventure, c'est l'Aventure.
Well, these exalting moments were to be short lived.
After nine kilometres, half way from our planned stop-over, Justin was showing signs of being "p..sed off". He kept looking at his sides seemingly thinking what are these two big green bags following me all the time for? Then I noticed that his rug, a very heavy felt filled cotton one with leather pads and sheepskin where it matters had slipped backwards from the wooden cross tree "thing" so I decided to call it a day as I spotted a nice field a hundred metres from the lane, right by the river Scye side so that my friends could drink. Justin seemed happy enough and started grazing as I set my hammoc between the two posts of the field gate. Then the wind got up, really bad at times so that the hammoc looked more like a tangled spinnaker than a bed, so I got my tent out and PFUFFF in seconds it was erected, camp bed and duvet ready for the rest of the day and the night. By then Justin was going mad at the end of his three metres rope, keeping getting wrapped aroung his legs or neck. Since the very beginning of having him, I have taken care of attaching him, at various length of lunge, four or five times a day and he never showed concern. By then he was rearing, getting in a frap and looking really cross and I thought it was something in the hedge frightening him so I moved him closer to camp but a little while later he did it again. I had the idea of giving him more room by attaching a very resistant six mills twine, twenty five metres long, doubled up so than his grazing surface would be much wider. My idea was to let him graze freely in the ten acres field I set camp in once darkness had come (so that I did not get kicked out of the property by an angry farmer with a fork like it happened to me once in Sicily in the seventies...) I was conveniently placed near the gate and sure that even if not quite honest, a belly full of grass would not go missing in this man's hay barn... As I was happily sending emails and messages to my people telling them how beautiful life is, all hell broke loose. Justin was going mad, throwing himself on the floor, rearing, panting, shouting like if in pain. I quickly got out of the tent and calmed him down by talking to him and freeing him from the rope. Seeing the state he was in, I took the decision to go back to the farm and after taking my valuable stuff from the tent, shut it and left it there to be retrieved later with the van. I did not want to put everything back on the donkeys back as he would have been disgusted and it would have defeated the reason why we stopped there in the first place. So we went back home and the safety of an enclosed paddock. Morality, I should have given him more training in this field. My only alternative now is to purchase a trekking electric fence, a thing he respects very much and that will allow him to make the most of the grass every night and will give me peace of mind when leaving him on the road side while shopping for example. Darn it... more expenses that I cannot really afford right now... Well, this is part of the learning curve. So, departure sometimes next week, hopefully tuesday or wednesday. Here is a link you can click to see better pictures as I upload them on my picasa account...
https://picasaweb.google.com/101369146975360924899/GaminJustinAndAlainGoTrekking2300KmsAcrossFranceAndSpain?authkey=Gv1sRgCPi_0OG5spWyUA#
Once all spirits cooled down, I jumped into my van and went back to camp to get my gear. I had made a fix on my GPS so it was easy enough to find it but when I got to the nearest farm giving access to the green lane, the path was blocked as it crossed a field which was full of cows so I did not think twice, I got to the nearest point where the lane meets the road and lifted the wooden barrier and followed the lane to the place where the tent and gear were retrieved...
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