Nasbinsals to l’estrade – 24 kms

Steps: 47913

I had to drag myself out of bed this morning. 27 kms the previous day was way too much. I felt I could do with a rest day, but Mike cracked the whip on me and told me to get out of bed.

It was 9am by the time we left the hotel, and 9.25 by the time we had picked up our supplies and were on the road. The biggest mistake I made this morning was skipping coffee.

‘It’s only 2 hours to Aubrac,’ I said to Mike.

Two hours later we’re still plodding through fields of cow shit, desperately needing coffee.

We passed about 5 people who had stopped for a rest and walked into the next paddock where a bull stood, blocking our path.

‘Let’s wait for the others, safety in numbers and all that,’ I said.

We looked back at them as they laid out their picnic blanket and brought out their coffee flask.

‘They’ll be ages,’ Mike said.

So we plodded on towards the bull, the jaws theme song drumming through my head, convinced it wasn’t going to end well. Thankfully as we got closer it moved away.

Finally, after 3 hours of walking, we arrived in the small picturesque town of Aubrac. A cafe appeared on the corner like an oasis in the desert. Desperately hoping it wasn’t a mirage, I said bonjour to all the other walkers we’d met on the road, and took a seat.

A man who looked just like Dad, brought me the best tasting coffee I have ever had.

With a new lease of life, we walked to the next town, but all the hotels and gites were full.

We had no choice but the push on to the same gite my sisters stayed at the previous evening.

We wandered through a large forest. A camp fire had been laid out beside a stream, inviting campers to camp there. A bit further along, a man had his tarp stretched between trees snd he was curled up underneath in a hammock.

‘Bugger that,’ I said to Mike.

It was a slow slog and seemed to take forever. I sang songs, trying to distract from the pain in my feet. Everything hurt. I wondered how my sisters could do such high mileage and not hate it, because the last hour of the walk today I hated it so much. I wished I was that guy in the hammock.

Finally, after a painful walk down a boring country road, then through some more mud, we made it to the gite, where I collapsed on a heap on the floor.

Dinner was amazing. Vege soup followed by beef stew followed by cheese the dessert then some wickedly strong schnapps.

We’ve been so lucky to have had rooms to ourselves since leaving our sisters and this is the first night sharing with others. I’m writing this from a dorm of 4 people, all of whom are snoring. Probably no sleep for me tonight.

Aumont Aubrac to Nasbinals – 26 km

Steps : 48166

ARrrrrrgghhh! I have a blister.

We headed out of Aumont Aubrac at 8.30am and 30 minutes into the walk I noticed a niggle in my little toe.

I whipped off my socks to check, and voila, a poxy blister right on the tip of my pinky. That’s all I needed before a 26 km walk.

It looked like it had been rubbing against my other toe, so we tried a variety of fixes which included vaseline, gauze, sticking plaster, strapping tape, and an ear plug.

In the end we settled on sticking plaster and the ear plug.

Today we walked through farm land and saw many cows. The highlight was a massive eagle soaring over the fields looking for his prey, no doubt capable of snatching a lamb. I hoped he wouldn’t try and snatch us.

Today we met the first English speaking person since we left Le Puy. We said Bonjour to each other, as you do, then I noticed his Kathmandu jacket. He was an Aussie from Fremantle. I asked if he knew Dave and Kasia. He didn’t.

It was the longest day yet at 26km. We limped into the village of Nasbinals and headed straight for the pharmacy to get a blister solution. She told me I should pop my blister, but I’m worried about getting an infection. I got a little toe glove for it though, so we’ll see how that goes tomorrow.

After the chemist, we wandered around and around looking for our gite. When we finally found it, it was all closed up, not a person in sight.

So we asked if there was a vacancy in the hotel but it was full. So he sent us to a hotel 100m away. 1km later, we arrive at the hotel. If we had’ve known it was so far, we would have grabbed supplies first.

So tonight we are in a hotel with no restaurant, so stale bread, cheese, and salami for us for dinner.

On the plus side, we have a bath, and it was absolute bliss.

Lunch Spot

The neck pillow Jenny threw out makes a great seat.

Man towing a trolley rather than carrying a backpack

St Alban sur Ligmanole to Aumont Aubrac – 15km

STEPS: 34131

I know you’re all just dying to hear about what we had for dinner last night. Well let me leave you in suspense a little bit longer while I tell you about our day.

This morning there was excitement at the breakfast table. Normally breakfast consists of bread, butter, jams, juice, and coffee. But this morning we got a surprise.

We arrived in the bar and there, sitting proudly on my plate, was a croissant. Ooh la la.

It was 8.50am by the time we left the hotel and stocked up on lunch — a baguette and some camembert. You’d think we’d never lose weight on a French diet, but my trousers aren’t so tight any more so that’s a good sign, right?. Either that or they’ve stretched, but I’m going with the former.

Today was a wonderful walk that seemed to go up and up and then up some more. We are thankful for our Hakaramata training as we are both finding the uphills quite easy.

Tonight we are staying at the same gite my sisters stayed at last night. It’s not as nice as the places we have stayed at over the last few nights, but I’m looking forward the aligot stretched potato stuff.

Sister Susan told me the previous evening that we should skip todays section and catch a bus to catch up with them. I’m glad we didn’t as it was a wonderful days walking.

It was my first day walking without my ankle strapped and it seemed no different to being strapped, so that is good.

Right, so the bit you’ve all been waiting for… last nights dinner!!!

For starters we had salami and salad, my first salad since we arrived. Mall the starters up until now have been soups.

It would probably have been enough for my dinner, but then the main came out and I was glad i skipped the bread.

The second course was oh so yummy and the best yet. Chicken stuffed with ginger biscuit (I think that’s what they said) and creamy potatoes and bacon. Oh yum yum yum.

Then they brought what they call soft cheese, which is the texture of yoghurt. It doesn’t have much flavour and I saw one of the french woman adding sugar to hers. Yuck, I thought. Then another lady added salt. That’s more like it, so I followed suit and it tasted much better. The gentleman beside me even added pepper to his.

Desert was a bread and butter pudding, believe it or not. I asked what the sauce was and the host said, english sauce. One of the diners said it was creme anglais and that sounded so much better. See below for photos.

Free hotel?

Le Sauvage to St Alban sur limagnole – 13km

Steps: 29267

This morning I looked out the window and was greeted with a grey ole rainy day. I opened the window and promptly shut it again as an icy blast slapped me in the face. I told Mike to rug up warm.

After a hearty breakfast we were on our way, thankful for our wet weather gear. It was actually kinda neat walking in the rain when you’re all rugged up nice and w

arm.

We have a system. We bought some cheap ponchos from the $2 shop t weigh only 64g. These are great to throw on quickly in a light shower as they cover our packs and keep us from overheating.

Then on the cold and really wet days, we chuck our raincoats on, then the poncho, and we have a double layer. It’s worked well so far anyway.

It was an enjoyable day as we ambled along through forests, farmland, and little villages. Except I lost my gloves, dammit. I loved those gloves! Let’s hope there are not too many more cold days, although Mike has kindly offered me his.

We did a bit of singing today, changing words around to songs to suit our walk. We have both now settled into our walking holiday and are enjoying it.

We keep meeting people we’ve met before. We seem to be walking the same speed and distances as a man we met at the first gite in Montbonnet. Lynda called him mountain man because he eats horse and frog.

My sisters are about 15km ahead of us as they like to walk long distances. We may catch up with them or we may not. I find between 15km and 20km to be about right for us.

Tonight we are staying in a gite in st Alban sur limagnole. It’s very nice and we have a private room with a double bed. It’s the most expensive place so far, at 85 euros for the two of us, but that includes a four course dinner and breakfast.

It’s always a surprise as to what we get for the meal of the day. So far we’ve had lentils and sausage, chicken and polenta, paella, and pork with scalloped potato.

Excited to find out what’s on the menu tonight. Hopefully not lentils!

Our gite for tonight

He’s happy again…

Off to explore the town we’re staying in (aka searching for beer or wine)

Saugues to Le Sauvage – 20 kms

Steps: 38391

We only planned on 12 kms today but it wasn’t to be.

We left our fantastic gite in Saugues, and backtracked into town to get supplies. Deux pain au chocolates, un baguette et salami. Sorted for the day.

Today we heard cuckoos as we staggered along. They may make a cool sound like a clock, but they are quite a selfish bird.

The cuckoo lady does it with the dude cuckoo, then lays her egg in someone else’s nest.

So one day Madame Blackbird is happily sitting on her eggs, excited about becoming a mum. Movement under her bum indicate her children are hatching.

They hatch and her children are beautiful. Except for one. The ugly ducking.

Even though Madame blackbird loves the ugly one as much as the others, she starts to panic.

‘Oh no,’ she thinks. ‘Monsieur Blackbird is going to know about my affair.’

But of course it was just the nasty cuckoo stirring things up, too lazy to look after her own children.

So next time you get excited about hearing a cuckoo, sister Susan, please think about the impact she has on the other bird families.

The other sounds of the day was the Eurofghter Typhon giving us a private airshow. There was too much cloud to see him all the time, but when we did it was pretty exciting, and amazing how the sound travelled for a good 5 seconds behind him.

We had planned to stop at the same gite that my sisters stayed at the previous night, but we arrived at 12.30 and they didn’t open until 2.30. So we continued on 8km to the next gite in Le Sauvage.

For the last kilometre it pissed down with rain and we were thankful to arrive to a nice warm bar.

We stayed in an old barn that had been converted to a gite. It was modern and clean. Our room was a dorm of six beds, all of which we had to ourselves.

Dinner was delicious. We sat at banquet tables with about 40 other walkers, all of them French. We had the most delicious pork and scalloped potatoes. Yum yum.

Monistrol to Saugues – 12 kms

Steps: 33048

My three sisters were up and off just after six this morning, missing out on breakfast. We had a more leisurely start and waited until 7.30 for breakfast.

We’ve become used to relying on Susan to speak French for all of us, so as she wasn’t at breakfast today I asked the lady next to me to pass me the milk in my best French.

‘You speak French?’ She says.

‘Non,’ I replied.

‘Yes you do. Without your sister here you speak French!’

I had to laugh.

We’d been warned of the two hour steep climb out of Monistrol, but we’re from NZ and found it easy. It was a lovely walk with stunning views.

As we neared the top, a man came running down the hill with a wheel barrow full of stuff. At first I thought it was burnt croissants, then I thought it might be some sort of weird horse meat.

The man sliced a piece for Mike to try. It was a fig thingamy. I don’t like figs so I declined and so did Mike. Hopefully the man will have better luck selling to someone else.

My ankle today was not so happy. I think the downhills from the previous day have upset it a bit, so a short 12km day for us.

We arrived in Saugues around 1pm, but our gite didn’t open until 3pm.

Being a Monday, most things were shut. Luckily we found a nice little bakery where we sat and ate bread and quiche and sipped coffee.

When we felt we’d outstayed our welcome we found a bar. Then they kicked us out so we hung around outside the gite like hobos, until it opened, hoping the Beast wouldn’t get us.

The region around Saugues was terrorised by the beast of Gevaudan, a man eating wolf, in the 1700s. We’d been warned to be careful.

Tonight we have a large private room to ourselves.

We had an amazing paella for dinner. Check out the photo.

Montbonnet to monistrol d’allier

Distance walked: 15 kms

Steps: 34163

The day started off well despite having no sleep the previous evening. My ankle felt good and I managed to keep up with the others.

We wandered through fields of poppies, stopping every 5 mins trying to capture the perfect photo on our phones. They turned out crap.

Then we entered the forest of doom where we were viciously attacked. Swarms of mozzies came at us from all directions, biting, weaving, and sucking on our blood.

Thankfully Susan had some repellent and we came out of it reasonably unscathed.

In the afternoon it all went downhill, literally. Steep, rocky, and upsetting to my ankle. It was a stunning days walk though, and the best part was having a beer at the end.

My sisters are planning to walk 24 kms tomorrow, but Mike and I have decided on a shorter day.

We stayed and gite where we enjoyed an amazing dinner with the other walkers and the hosts.