Saturday, April 20, 2024
End: Sainte-Marie Cemetery, Le Havre
Kilometers: 18.7
Total: 188.8
I had a bad night. It was really cold outside, and my sleeping bag wasn’t enough protection. I must have slept about three or four hours before waking up and tossing and turning the rest of the night.
Thankfully, Alex and the kids fared better. After they had woken up, we got packed up and got hiking by 8:30.
In the morning we spent our time walking through farm fields, trying to step on top of the wet grass to avoid getting our shoes wet. It’s a losing battle.
We took a back alley into Rolleville, then hiked up around the church. Stopping at a bakery to get a snack for the kids, we then hiked on.
As the day went on, I started to realize the full effect that the days of high wind and low temperatures were having on me. The last night was exceptionally cold, and now I was sick.
I focused on keeping us moving forward, and soon we saw some tall buildings in the distance. At the time I thought they couldn’t possibly be Le Havre, but actually we were indeed within sight of our final city, though it would take some time to get there.
We arrived in Montivilliers. It’s a city, but we didn’t have anything we were looking for or needed to do. We just walked on through, myself with a headache and the chills.
We got to the other side of town and climbed up to a park. The children quickly found a playground, and Alex and I tried to lay in the sun, which was intermittent. We held on for as long as we could, but soon we had to keep walking to stay warm.
I had been bothered by the fact that there was a possibility that the apartment I had reserved for us in Le Havre wouldn’t be available until 5:30, which is ridiculous. I texted the owner to notify that we would be there at 3 as previously specified, to no reply. All three of the reservations I had made had relatively late check-in times, so it seemed like it is a problem everywhere.
We walked through the forest and approached Le Havre, finding yet another playground, this one quite large. The kids ran off to play while Alex and I watched from a cold park bench. That lasted awhile, then we were off again.
Eventually we made it into the city, and got off of the trail to go to our room for the night. Thankfully, no one was there and the check-in went smoothly. We all showered, I got in bed to stay warm, and the kids watched TV.
Later on I went out to get groceries and dinner for us. It was a bit of a surreal experience, being in Le Havre with our elementary school children, who had walked 200 kilometers there over 10 days from Le Tréport.
I was very proud of our family, and ready to tackle the last few kilometers and finish the GR21 the next day.
