L’Estrade to Espalion – 20 km

Steps: 44235

My nose is full of snot. I had a sore throat for a few days, now I have snot.

Today we thought we had a short walk, but there were many ups and down. We seemed to climb up and up and up, then down and down and down.

My ankle seems to be hurting more than ever along with the rest of my feet.

We knew the town we would be staying at was on the river Le Lot. So why the hell does the path keep going up?

We arrived in a nice little town called saint-come-d’olt, situated on the river Le Lot. A market was just closing down so we grabbed some olives and nuts and a coffee. We’d have liked to have stayed in this town, but nothing opened until 3pm.

We saw a lady walking down the street with her backpack open. Mike told her about it in his best French, and she turned around and said, ‘I speak English you know.’

Turned out she was a kiwi living in aussie. We got chatting and she’d met my 3 sisters a few days ago. They told her how they’d left me behind and she thought they were real nasty, until she realised I had Mike with me and they hadn’t left me to fend for myself.

We chatted for a bit, then plodded on to the bigger town of Espalion. It was a hard slog up another steep arsed hill. We still couldn’t understand why we had to go so far up to come back down again. Were the pilgrims really that stupid not to carve a path along the river? And was everyone following also stupid, blindly following like sheep, us included.

We met the Aussie dude from Fremantle again. He’s a fast walker so we were surprised when he overtook us again. We figured he’d be long gone.

Anyway, after many ups and many downs, we arrived in the cute town of Espalion. Our feet ached as we trundled into town, taking breaks every few minutes.

A camping ground emerged on our left.

‘Wonder if they have cabins?’ I said to Mike, fond memories conjuring up in my mind from our cycle touring days.

We had planned to find a hotel for two days as our body’s desperately needed a rest, but camping sounded way more relaxing.

The entrance to the camping ground was 50 metres away, but neither of us had the energy to walk that far.

Instead, we collapsed on a park bench and called them on the phone.

Thankfully, they had a free cabin for only 48 euros per night and that included our own toilet, bathroom, two bedrooms and kitchen. So we booked for two nights. Voila.

Our little house for two nights

Big statue overlooking Espalion

Walking into neat town of St Come d’old

Chair without backs so we could sit on them with backpacks