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• day 03
• Wednesday, 29 August 2018
• Calais to Licques
• 29 km to yesterday
• 24 km today
• 53 km on Via Francigena to date

My usual practice, of going to bed dressed for walking is restarted.

Just on daylight I start out noting the tres grande hotel d'ville as I find the road to Guines and lunch.  

It is overcast.  My standard practice is to walk on roads (and related footpaths, if any). So, picking up the D127, with a canal from Calais to Guines to my left, is quite straightforward.  But my nervousness is heightened.  Similar to when I left Le Puy-en-Velay some 30 months before, the magnitude of the entire task ahead bears down on me for a while.  

But the footpath beside the road is good and by late morning I am at Guines.  The town square has a good collection of shops and I select the café, which also has a bar and quickfire lotto games.  My sense is that most activity seems is focused on the latter two activities.  I eat, drink (coffee) and spread my slightly damp tops out to see if they will dry a bit.

After about an hour, I sense I have outstayed my welcome and get underway.  This time on the D215.

Licques is the destination for the day and this section is almost as flat a the proverbial pancake.  The road is good, the shoulders are adequate and traffic is minimal.

What is not minimal is the rain.  It started before Guines and is now very persistent.  And I have not perfected putting on my wet weather gear.  So I am getting quite wet and will not need a shower today.

At Licques I ask in the café about accommodation and told of the camp site on the outskirts and also in my general direction for the next day.  A few km on and I talk with the manager about a tent site.  He takes one look at me and says "here's a key for a chalet, at the price of a tent site".  There is heating and I can start to dry out my wet clothes and put on my dry.  And have a meal.

And so to bed.