I keep saying this, but ... what an amazing day! Really, really tough - climbing from 300 to 900 metres and then back down to 400. Our climb started as soon as we left our cozy gite, Gite de Roselyne, at around 8.30 this morning. But the ascent and descent would not have been so tough but for the almost gale force winds. It was scary at times, and freezing. We were told later this afternoon, after it was all over, that it was 4 degrees with wind chill. Yikes. But the sun shone. And the views were amazing. It was exhilarating.
At one stage we could see the Mediterranean Sea though we surely must be hundreds of kilometres from there. Our cameras just couldn't quite capture it - but the view is in our memories. I could have taken a lot more photos, but didn't fancy taking my gloves off too often.
Though we walked around 29 kms today, in difficult conditions, we were in Saint Gervais sur Mare by 3.15 this afternoon. With such icy winds, and nowhere to stop along the path, we made very good time. We had booked a chambre d'hôte from our guidebook and, as usual, had no idea what to expect. But we were in for a treat. The house is more than 1,000 years old, and very quirky and charming, as is our host - charming, not quirky. After such a cold day, we are very cosy here. We could have stayed 5 kilometres earlier at the gite in Mecle, where Guy and Martine have stopped for the night, but tomorrow is another very tough day, climbing from 400 and1100 metres, so Domi and I were keen to get another 5 kms under our belts this afternoon. That leaves 27kms for tomorrow, rather than 32. And the icy winds are likely to be with us again.
Back to this morning, and Guy and Martine made an early start to take a leisurely pace on the difficult path to Mecle, while Domi and I left some time later. We've agreed that we should each walk our own Way, and let the Camino take care of the rest, as we did on the Primitivo. We've been walking to different timetables for the past few days. Guy like to use his GPS to find alternative shorter routes by road, while The French and I prefer to stay on The Way as far as possible. We are happy to walk 25+ each day, while G and M sometimes have a rest day or shorter day, followed by an extra long day.
So we bid G and M Bon Chemin when they set out this morning and said we would no doubt see them along The Way but, if not, hopefully in Toulouse. Even if we are a day ahead by then, we will probably stay a day there to visit, so the timing might work out well. But of course, as always happens on The Way, we saw them again in no time, on top of the mountain later this morning. And we have all booked to be in the same gite tomorrow night!
Later - I have been meaning to write about some of the people we've met along The Way, but The French are just back from a longer than usual dinner with one of those people, so that will have to wait.
Tough walk tomorrow. Time for bed.
J x
