The Aubrac Plateau

Today marks our first week of walking.  We reached the village of Aubrac at 1307 metres early this afternoon, having traversed across the Aubrac Plateau all day. The countryside is open farmland and almost treeless. We had a lot of long steady climbing today. 

Very cold today, -3 when we got out of bed this morning, fortunately the hotels still have the heating operational. It remained cold all day but it made for pleasant walking untill the icy wind hit us on the exposed grassy hills in the afternoon.  When we first set out this morning at 8am the puddles had a layer of thin ice on the surface and some sections of track where it was a bit muddy and damp were covered in ice crystals. Apparently there is the possibility of snow here right up until May.

Last night at dinner we had our first taste of aligot, a French speciality from this region. It is a dish made from melted cheese blended into mashed potatoes which can be stretched like a dough, and it was served with sausage.  Very tasty, but a little heavy for us so we did not indulge like the locals.

Unfortunately I have to report that I have developed a blister the size of a 20 cent coin on the back of my right heel. I am so annoyed!  Cannot believe that I walked the whole of the Spanish Camino without blisters and here I am only 7 days in on this one with a blister.  I think it has been caused by not having my boot tied tight enough causing friction  with all the climbing. Today I padded it with wool and tape and was able to walk without too much trouble so we will see how it goes.

An even bigger problem has been caused by our USB charger getting zapped in a power point two days ago and now no longer works.  We have tried in every village we have walked through since to buy a new one to no avail.  Fortunately we have borrowed a spare one from Hanna for now, but Hanna may be pushing on ahead of us after the weekend. We rely on the charger for six devices, the mobile phone, which is a necessity to call ahead to make hotel bookings, the Samsung Tablet, the camera, my kindle, and our two fitbits which are our watches.  

We pass through a larger town on Saturday, Espalion, which will be our last hope of buying a charger for some time. It is also the May Day holiday weekend so we are hoping shops will be open. If not, plan B could see us leaving the trail, catching a bus to a large town somewhere and then coming back to rejoin the trail. Not something we want to think about right now.

For the past two days we have been walking on and off with Hanna and our two Aussie friends, staying in the same accommodation, drinking wine and having our evening meal together which has been great.  

Tonight however, as is the way of the Camino, we are all seperated.  Sandy and Karla are in a Gite half a km from town, we are right in town, and Hanna is staying in the next village a few km away.  We are bound to meet up again on the track tomorrow, a 24 km stretch, our longest so far, mostly steep downhill, to Saint Come d'Olt, where we will be spending the night in a restored medievil convent. 

Day 5

Finally a WiFi service strong enough to publish a blog posting.

We are loving France and had a fantastic first day on the Camino.  It began with a 7am Pilgrims Mass in the lovely cathedral that overlooks the beautiful town of Le Puy.  This mass is performed each day and although spoken entirely in French, it is easy to understand the message of wishing pilgrims a safe journey.  After a blessing and a smile from the friendly Bishop, each pilgrim  was presented with a small scallop shell medallion. There were at least 40 pilgrims at the mass who were setting out on the walk that day, many more than we were expecting to encounter.

After the mass we walked out of Le Puy with Hanna, all of us rugged up against a cold early morning and immediately began a steep climb.  Thick fog reduced visibiliy so we were unable to look back down on the lovely town as we left it, however after a few kilometres and just before reaching the village of La Roche, the fog cleared and the sun shone for the rest of the day.  We walked 16km through mostly farmland, much of it dairy country. Spring has certainly sprung in the French countryside, the fields are lush with green pasture, often sprinkled with hundreds of yellow daffodiles, and the continous sound of birdsong accompanied us for most of the day.

Our first night was spent in the tiny village of Montbonnet at an elevation of 1130 metres which gave us a climb of 500 metres for the day.  

Our second day saw us continually climbing and descending for 14km into the village of Monistrol d'Allier on the d'Allier River. We had rain on and off all day and just made it into town before a storm hit.  We had a great view of the river from our hotel room and watched as a group of kayakers take on the rapids just a little way downstream.

The following two days of walking were again challenging as we continued climbing to the village of Saugues and then Le Sauvage at 1300 metres. Yesterday we walked 20km, half of that in heavy rain  in full wet weather gear. Today we walked 20km in fine weather but very cold and sometimes windy conditions to the village of Les Estrets. I doubt if the temperature passed 7 degrees today.

Although at times it has been cold and wet with muddy conditions and the track challenging, it is a fantastic walk and we are enjoying it immensly.  The scenery is stunning, the food so far has been superb, and the accommodation is very good.  We've eaten home made cheese and yogurt straight from the farm, homemade salamies and preserves, as well as delicious braised meats and potsto bakes.

We have met many pilgrims, most are from France, also an English girl Meg who is walking the Camino with her dog Oscar, and two Australian women, Sandi and Karla who we have become quite friendly with.

Tomorrow we walk 23km to Finieyrols which is the start of the Aubrac Plateau.  Tomorrow will also see us clock up our first 100km!

LE PUY EN VELAY

We are in Le Puy and it's lovely, except for the rain that has just started to fall as I write this.  A storm is passing over, the rain is quite heavy now and there is thunder. Hopefully this will all pass before we set out on the first day of our Camino tomorrow.

We arrived in Le Puy yesterday by train from Geneva. In fact the journey required catching three trains, first Geneva to Lyon, then on to St Etienne, and finally to Le Puy. For the last leg of the journey from St Etienne to Le Puy, the train wound it's way around the valley following the beautifull Loire River offering spectacular scenery.

After much research, Steve made all the train bookings on line before we left home and the tickets arrived by mail several weeks ago. The schedules were tight as we had only 15 minutes between trains, which isn't a lot of time to navigate between platforms and read notice boards when everything is written in French, but due to Steve's precision planning, everthing went smoothly and we had a wonderful trip through the French countryside. The trains were great; modern, clean, comfortable, with places to store luggage and run almost on time.

We arrived in Le Puy late in the afternoon and spent some time wandering the narrow streets of the old town before finding our hotel.  After checking in we made our way back to the train station where we sat in a street cafe drinking 'le vin rouge de la maison' awaiting the arrival of our friend Hanna from California, who was arriving on a later train from Lyon. As we'd hoped, Hanna was wearing the same bright yellow jacket she wore on the Spanish Camino, so was instantly recognisable as she walked from the station.  Such a joyful reunion, hugs all around, then back to the hotel for our first of what will be many delightful meals together.

This morning we walked the steep streets leading to the Cathedral to obtain our Pilgrims Credential which we will have stamped in each village we stay in along the way.  We also climbed up to the Statue of Our Lady Of France, an impressive caste iron monument perched atop a volcanic pinnacle. Made from 213 caste iron guns captured from the enemy at the seige of Sebastopol and donated to the Bishop of Le Puy by Napoleon III, she supposedly represents the victory of good over evil. For a long time she was one of the largest statues in the world, but that all changed with the erection of the Statue of Liberty in 1886.

And so our journey begins tomorrow and it's all uphill for 16km. We arrived as tourists and will leave as pilgrims!

READY . . SET . . GO . . . . . ALMOST!

Excitement is growing with just 7 days to go before we board the plane!  The weather is lovely, training is going well, we’ve been clocking up the kilometres walking local streets and National Park trails, going to the gym, and we’ve been walking with our friends and fellow members of the Tamborine Mountain Bushwalking Club.  The feeling now is, yes, we can do this!

We’re also excited to learn that a fellow pilgrim from the USA, Hanna, who we befriended on the Spanish Camino, will also be walking The Way of Le Puy at the same time as us. It’s going to be wonderful to meet up again and walk together for the first several days until Hanna strides off over the horizon to continue on at her faster pace, as her time on the Camino is limited compared to ours.

With our bags already packed, there’s not much left to do this week except to stay fit and keep those legs pumping.

The next blog entry should be from somewhere in the vicinity of Le Puy, France.  Au revoir!

The Knoll NP is our favourite walking track on Tamborine Mountain

Steve crossing Sandy Creek - The Knoll NP

Cameron Falls Lookout - The Knoll NP

Cameron Falls - The Knoll NP

Tamborine Mountain Bushwalkers  -  D'Aguilar Range  -  Brisbane Hinterland

Wendy - Hanna - Steve - walking from Finisterre to Muxia