




Another short one, but beautiful countryside and remote chapels occasionally dot the way.
Unfortunately Nogaro itself is not impressive despite its hosting of the 500CC GP. This evening the town is hosting a `Feria`- an annual festival featuring bulls being herded masterfully up the street by horseback riders and then let to run free back down the street. This goes on for a while with young local men jumping the barriers.
Imagining myself to be one of them, i jump into the street and am convinced somehow that i can evade them. Only problem is that after 300klms of walking, any `fast twitch` muscles i might have had for fast running are gone and I end up clinging to the street wall trying to look like a `gecko` as the beasts hurtle past.
One old grandmother is sitting on a shopfront window away from the barriers. And rightly so, a huge bull charges her, but she is incapable of moving. She must have been a good woman in need of preserving as for some reason the beast stops within a foot or two and heads to another target. Amazing! She looks at my disbelief with her own and we both then look Heavenward- her Angel was looking out for her this day.
Most ironically the only injuries that occur are to those standing behind the barriers as a bull charges it. I really wonder what makes humans believe that a bull comprehends the ettiquette of sticking to his side of the flimspy aluminium railing!
The more i see these spectacles in the South, the more symphathetic i am of the bull`s cause. He at least is being true to himself and his nature, whilst many of our so called superior species are behaving like taunting apes.