Bapaume to Perrone:
The 4th consecutive day of heat around 35C/95F so we started out early at 6:45 and were rewarded with a beautiful sunrise.
As we walked, cemeteries were increasingly common. German as well as Allied graveyards.
At one point in the middle of nowhere we came to a small Australian Memorial.
These small Memorials are touching in their intimacy. The plaque below tellls the story of 12 young Australians coming upon a much larger force of German soldiers:
The walking now is quite flat through many fields of corn and wheat and other crops. A few forests. Good for reflection. My two grandfathers were here in France for The Great War.
After 6 hours of walking we struggled into Perrone on the River Somme. We took a Maps.Me shortcut which didn’t work out to well as we ended up in a Police Barracks and we had to crawl under a locked gate.
Father Jean-Louis of St. Jean Baptiste Church welcomed us as two pilgrims and provided a simple small but adequate cottage on the grounds of the rectory.
And nature provided ample food along the way with an assortment of wild berries, apples, pears, and plums.
