DAY 8: June 11: Livinhac >> Figerac (24km)

HARD DAY & NOT

Today's Pics Click Here

Today was not a bad walking day, of course it started with a blood pumping climb, but nothing near yesterday's 100 story one. At the top the path leveled out and was mainly wide route across the top of mountains, with some lovely views and cool misty lighting shots, etc.

The day started great as I left at 6:00, which is when I like to leave, but is often hard to do in a Gites, as I dont want to disturb others by getting up and gettmg my pack, etc. But unlike most days, there were no cafes or bars along the way, so I hauled food with me. This makes the day a bit tougher mentally - I am not exactly sure why, but its nice to stop for a coffee or coke along the way or a snack.

But late in my 7 hour walk, I just mentally checked out - and could not find my earphones to use music to get me through. The walk became harder, not physically, but mentally. I think this pilgrim is changing, Being my third walk, I know longer feel so compelled to do many of the things I did on earlier walks, one of which is simply to continue the pilgrimage each day.

At dinner tonight with a couple pilgrims we were talking of a night just a few days ago, and even after opnly a week, having been in so many towns; I could not recall some towns and details - this is part of the impact of constantly moving. So while I experience alot, in some ways I am missing alot too in each of these places.

I am thinking of just staying here another day and resting, and looking about the town, but am worried I will let Siggy down. Which of course is the challenge when traveling with others - you want the trip to be your own, but you also want to stay connected. And on these pilgrimages, if you stop a day, you often lose "Your Gang" because they are now a day ahead of you.

Tonight I am in a hotel room alone, a luxury I had planned before I left - to take one night a week in hotel; and its nice to relax and get some down/ alone time. My hotel room looks like a teenagers room as I have my entire pack of stuff all over the room...lol.

I am not sure what the rest of the pilgrimage holds for me, and I feel a bit sad as if I have lost some of what I liked, but now I wonder how the hell did I walk every day for 2 months on the Italian walk.

Hell I mean we take days off from work, so shouldn't pilgrims get a day off too?

Bon Nuit!

Day 7: June 10: Conques >> Livinhac (25km)

TODAYS PHOTOS

How did you start your day?

Today , I started the day climbing approximately 100 stories - about 500 meters - thats a hell of a lot of stairs. Conques is in the valley and we had to climb out, it was a tough climb, but as I have said, I am growing stronger each day.

From there it did not get much better with many hills and valleys, going through a "new" industrial town and ending with another 2 km of up then back down -  ohh la la.

One cool thing is we crossed over the Meridien line - the line from north pole to south pole and thru Paris! 

It was also a quiet day seeing very few pilgrims along the way - it seems we are starting over.

Not much else....Bon Nuit.

Day 6: June 9: Etiang >> Conques (35km)

TODAYS PHOTOS

After our brief vacation day yesterday, we needed to catch up on our itinerary, so I can catch my later flight to Munich (July 3). But we had to pay for our vacation as this made us walk late into the day, under a hot sun.

I have not slept well the past two nights, think it must be the shared rooms and getting used to it, so I have only been getting 3-4 hours/ night.

The day was beautiful and fresh and we had a challenging day in the mountains, ups and downs - both challenging in their own right.

Today we ended in Conques, a big stop along the way, and are staying in the monsatery with about 90 other pilgrims. There was a pilgrim meal tonight, followed by a blessing mass and music in the
cathedral.

Along the way, I read the history of the town and their patron saint, whose name slips my mind right now, but she was sainted for her work in healing eye maladies. Anyway she died - of course and was buried in her home town in Northern France, and years later when she was sainted, her bones being valuable RELICS, she was dug up and kept by her hometown church. As her work was done in Conques, they sent an undercover monk spy to her town to join the church, and after 10 years, he earned their trust and was allowed to guard the relics, which he stole and took to Conques. It was the popularity of the relics which earned the city enough money to grow and make a grand monsatery and church. It was the Disneyland of their time.

It was weird reading this story and thinking about the history of the pilgrimages and how the church used these to take money from people to grow in power and size. It is a bit discomforting to follow this "spiritual" route and think back to how so much of the motivation was commercial and took advantage of so many.

So not much has changed in a thousand years....something to ponder along the route...

We also had to say goodbye to several of our pilgrim friends as this was their stopping point.

Bon Nuit!

DAY 5: June 8: Espallion >> Etiang (15km)

Todays Pics Click here

The day was beautiful - perfect walking weather, though a bit overcast, especially as the morning begins with a strenuous climb to amazing views...IF CLEAR. Unfortunately me or my camera do not take such good pics if the sun is not out.

The way up was a bit treacherous, narrow muddy paths and a steep incline. It certainly got my blood pumping and kept me warm in the cool morning. But as the sayiong goes, what goes up must come down was also a bit severe.

We had a long day planned 22 km and staying in a small village with nothing but the GITES (pilgrim hotel); so we needed to pack in supplies at the midpoint, Etiang.

We arrived in Etiang at noon - a beautiful village along the River Lot. But in south france - all shoppes close from 12:00 - 2:00pm; so we either needed to move on without food for the night and next morning or stay put. As the village was so lovely we decided to stay.

We are staying at the Gites Communal - sort of like the local YMCA; and have found these city Gites to be better in most cases than the privately owned ones. Todays Gites appears brand new and is wonderfully designed with large kitchen, nice rooms with just a few beds in each, a lovely terrace/ balcomy and best yet - a dishwasher AND washing machine....a Pellerin's dream!!!!!

To give you an idea of the number of pilgrims/ hikers along the route, our Gite has 26 places and I feel sure they were all full, there are 2 other Gites in this village and one with 19 was full when we arrived, the other had 15 and I am not sure. There are also 4 hotels and we know many pilgrims stay there and also 3 HOTES -(Bed & Breakfasts). So it is likely there are close to 100 pilgrims in this village alone.

Tomorrow we must make up some mileage, and we stay in a monastery with 93 beds in a DORTOIRE (dormitory - possibly all one room).

We shall see!

Bon Nuit!

Day 4: June 7: St Chely >> Espallion (22km)

 THE REAL WORLD - Ou c'est trouve?

Today's Photos

The day was beautiful again with good climbs and better descents without so much water or difficult paths (live stream beds). I feel myself growing stronger which is nice, but am a bit overwhelmed by all the pilgrims (fellow travelers along the way).

In Italy, the entire 2 months walking, I saw maybe 20 pilgrims total, here I see at least that many a day. Although it is easy to walk alone and I do this most of the day, if I stop, at a spot to rest or reflect, maybe ten or fifteen minutes before another pilgrim arrives.

Perhaps I am just a whiney American - In Italy I was too lonely and here I am not lonely enough.

Another thing that I am struggling with is technology. I have never had any technology on previous walks - not even a cell phone. But here on this walk I have a cell phone, a kindle (books), and a laptop (I'm actually teaching an online course that began Monday).

The absence of technology let me truly walk outside my world and go inside to a new wold so to speak. I remember in Italy, I often found computers in the library or bureau de tourism, but these would close at 5 or so; and without technology I felt I had so much time. Even now as I walk, I am sometimes checking my phone for stupid reasons like email or facebook updates. I feel lost on the way.

I know in my own "normal" world, I have so many distractions - phone, internet,tv, work, etc. that it sometimes seems days go by without thinking or paying attention to whats around me. And that is part of the discomfort with the walks - is having nothing but time and having to fill it. I read voraciously in Italy when I could find English books - but I guess this too was another distraction. And now my kindle is loaded with like 40 classics from Thoreau to Dickens to Hugo - all free books from Guttenberg as copywrights are long ended.

So I think my challenge now is not physical, but mental and discipline - can I "turn-off" the world I know, to remember the REAL WORLD that we all carry within. It is like this picture I took today that I love. The clouds hid most of the view, but there was a tiny window to see through - perhaps this is what our distractions do - hide the best view!

Here is my plan:

•  Internet check ins/ school in morning; 
•  Turn phone off while I walk - use only for reservations
• 5 - 6 pm Internet Happy Hour (phone for facebook, etc)

Let's see how my INTERNET/ DIET goes! Care to diet with me!

Bon Nuit!

Day 3: Nasbanal >> St.Chely d"Aubrac

AMAZING RECOVERY, BEAUTIFUL DAY, REAL CAMINO (17 km)

ALL PHOTOS:

Nothing much to report today, it was a wonderful day on the camino and NOT on the road. I guess
the amazing thing is yesterday, I felt so bad at the end of the day - everything hurt and I had a slight fever, yet this morning I felt strong and well again...the healing power of sleep is weird and wonderful!

It was a beautiful sunny day and the walk was through mountain forests and fields. The ascents were strenuous for the energie, and the descents are strenuous on the knees and ankles, especially as many were down stream beds...that were not dry.So a bit muddy of a day.

I think the funniest story today was hanging out with a french guy (Jean Pierre) during a break who is in a Blue Grass Band - yes correct, supposedly bluegrass and country music are relatively popular in France - who would have guessed. But we started speaking about learning languages and we both remembered our FIRST lesson in each other's language:

JEAN PIERRE: Hello Brian. How are you? Brian, where is Jenny? Jenny isthe kitchen!
MOI: Bonjour Guy Cava? Je m'appelle  Jean Cluny!









Here is a pic of our room for the night - 12 Euros; sort of like a dorm room living, except we also have a common kitchen! A great and inexpensive way to travel!

Not much else to report, except I am looking forward to ALIGOT for dinner!

Bon Nuit!

Day 2: Aumont-Abrec >> Nasbinals (27km - 16 miles)

DIVERSION - LONGER TRAINING DAY - HEAVENLY POTATOES - KINDNESS OF STRANGERS & SELF FLAGGELATION:

Today was to be a longer day - about 16 miles, which is pushing it a bit for the second day. Funny thing is, The past few camino's I have done, I started with long walking days (>25km) for the first 5-7 days), so it would seem, that I am being a bit smarter in terms of this camino....though my body did not agree, but I get to that later.

Last night we stayed in a "Gites" (pronounced Zheetes) which is a cheaper accommodation where you share rooms and kitchen and bathrooms with other pilgrims. Our room had 16 - 18 beds. Even with tylenol PM and ear plugs, I awoke several times through the night to an assortment of sounds - who knew that different countries might have different snores. At one point, I sort of imagined I was just another animal in this barn, and that we each make our own sound...this made it a little less annoying.

Starting about 7:30 this morning after a nice cappucinno and crossant in local bar, we decided to avoid the off-road trails as there has been lots of rain, and both my book and Siggy's said these trails can become "bogs"in bad weather, so we made our own diversion and took the D987 - a nice country road that goes directly - sort of - to our planned ending spot (Nasbinal).

The morning started strong and we soon racked up about 13 km and I still felt good, though of course my feet were sore and whining from about the 4th km...which is normal for most of the walk.

The day was overcast and misty and a bit chilly. But I did not notice so much as the walking keeps me warm. One of the last villages we came to was having a Country Festival/ Market with all kinds of local products (cheeses, meats, jams, etc) as well as all sorts ofother odds and ends with lots of french fair-type food.

Unfortunately I ate at the first booth and missed one of the yummiest dishes, Allagot - a regional dish of mashed potatoes and cheese...OH MY GOD!!!! We were sitting in a bar eating our lunch when the table next to us with an older couple and a younger one,  brought out their Allagot dishes and we must have been looking at them longingly and pathetically - perhaps ala Oliver Twist, because the younger woman grabbed a spoonful and handed it to me - it was heavenly!!!

I have met with nothing but continual gestures of kindness here - it is one of the things I love about the being "a pilgrim.".

The rest of the walk was a struggle, perhaps due to the increased mileage as well as the cool temperatures, constant mist and a few light rainstorms. That by the time I reached Nasbinal, my butt was dragging. It is funny, but as soon as I passed the sign for the city, Bienvenue a Nasbinal, my body decided it was done -- funny how psychological physical things can be.

Almost immediately after the sign, I felt like I had a fever, my feet were dragging and my shoulders were sore from the weight. It was another km into town center, and I hardly made it. Even though the best weather of the day happened at the end with sunny skies finally. Even so, my sholders hurt so bad, I feel like a pilgrim of old who whips his back with every step he takes. I had adjusted my backpack this morning and am unsure if it is this or just the fact that I am carrying so much weight - about 30lbs,

Checking into our Gite for the night, I took a hot shower and fell deep asleep for about 45 minutes, I woke up stiff and with a slight fever. After hobbling to the local bar, a coffee and a beer, I feel a bit less stiff and hopefully a good nights rest - in a new barn - will bring more healing. Something I have
learned from these trips is how amazing sleep is for restoring the body - many days I felt like I could NOT go on the next day and surprisingly was in good shape in the morning.

Tomorrow - a lighter day - only 17km, but some steep descents and I think better weather!

Bon Nuit!