Category: Caminos

Happy – June 8, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #26 St Chély d’Aubrac / St Côme d’Olt
  • Distance: 10.7 miles / Total 342.3 miles
  • Ascent: 840’ / Descent: 2,317’
  • Time: 6 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 70-80°/ hazy without clouds

Happy faces.

Genèva florist heads home.
Hospitality shed from ten years ago still attracts a crowd. Beverage cost has gone from 1€ to 1 1/2€.
Squeezing into a hollow tree trunk.
Dinner Queen got to wear a tiara.

Silence – June 8, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #26 St Chély d’Aubrac / St Côme d’Olt
  • Distance: 10.7 miles / Total 342.3 miles
  • Ascent: 840’ / Descent: 2,317’
  • Time: 6 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 70-80°/ hazy without clouds

How much space can silence fill?

Pilgrims crossing.
Devoid of human and mechanical sound.
Less talking, more looking.
Respite from a long steep ascent. The only café gets all the business. I upgrade my picnic sandwich for a Greek Salad.

Why? – June 7, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #25 Nasbinals / St Chély d’Aubrac
  • Distance: 10.2 miles / Total 331.6 miles
  • Ascent: 711’ / Descent: 1,817’
  • Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
  • Weather: 60-70°/ overcast, light rain (12th day of rain)

Why is it when these cows have all the tasty grazing pasture they congregate on the path?

Foolhardy person walking through the herd.
“Head them off at the pass.” Shouts the black cow with the largest horns.
“You move!”
Outnumbered. Outsized.

First – June 7, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #25 Nasbinals / St Chély d’Aubrac
  • Distance: 10.2 miles / Total 331.6 miles
  • Ascent: 711’ / Descent: 1,817’
  • Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
  • Weather: 60-70°/ overcast, light rain (12th day of rain)

I have been battling with remembering so little from my first experience on this Camino. Perhaps it’s good I don’t remember much from ten years ago. It is as though I’m seeing this country for the first time.

Beautiful walk today on a plateau.
Plateau.
Growing on the plateau.
On the plateau.

Aligot – June 7, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #25 Nasbinals / St Chély d’Aubrac
  • Distance: 10.2 miles / Total 331.6 miles
  • Ascent: 711’ / Descent: 1,817’
  • Time: 6 hours 30 minutes
  • Weather: 60-70°/ overcast, light rain (12th day of rain)

Good dinner memories at this restaurant shared with Christine and Mimi in 2014. Now I have the area’s classic “stretchy” cheese and potato dish, Aligot.

Restaurant worth the walk.
What are the odds I would randomly photograph the man in the blue shirt twice? Same man, same great restaurant.
Aligot.
Falling Aligot.

Gutsy – June 6, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #24 Aumont-Aubrac / Nasbinals
  • Distance: 18 miles / Total 321.4 miles
  • Ascent: 1,285’ / Descent: 868’
  • Time: 10 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 60-75°/ overcast, 6 “sprinkling” rain (not requiring rain gear), blue sky with white clouds

I took a little know variant to see the local Cascade du Déroc. No Camino traffic here. Gutsy.

Cascade du Déroc.
Cascade du Déroc.
Cascade du Déroc.
Who else but my Parisian campers!

Beauties – June 6, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #24 Aumont-Aubrac / Nasbinals
  • Distance: 18 miles / Total 321.4 miles
  • Ascent: 1,285’ / Descent: 868’
  • Time: 10 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 60-75°/ overcast, 6 “sprinkling” rain (not requiring rain gear), blue sky with white clouds

More beauties.

Same flower with two looks.
Narcissus
Today’s barista.
A remembered church.

Pageant- June 6, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #24 Aumont-Aubrac / Nasbinals
  • Distance: 18 miles / Total 321.4 miles
  • Ascent: 1,285’ / Descent: 868’
  • Time: 10 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 60-75°/ overcast, 6 “sprinkling” rain (not requiring rain gear), blue sky with white clouds

If there was a beauty pageant for cows, today’s cows are winners. They have the reputation of being the most beautiful on the Camino.

Winner.
Winners.
Yeap. I could scratch their heads between their horns. It felt gritty.
Winner.

Strokes – June 6, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino – #24 Aumont-Aubrac / Nasbinals
  • Distance: 18 miles / Total 321.4 miles
  • Ascent: 1,285’ / Descent: 868’
  • Time: 10 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 60-75°/ overcast, 6 “sprinkling” rain (not requiring rain gear), blue sky with white clouds

Different strokes for different folks.

It’s a challenge staying upright on the rocks. Imagine pulling and pushing a cart!
Outfitted for two.
Well deserved soak for the “cart” woman.
Umbrella hat from Amazon. 3€. Too bad the headpiece broke on its debut showing.

Workers – June 5, 2024

  • Francès ~ Podiensis Camino -#23 Le Sauvage / Aumont-Aubrac
  • Distance: 17.6 miles / Total 303.4 miles
  • Ascent: 1,350’ / Descent: 2,075’
  • Time: 9 hours 00 minutes
  • Weather: 60-75°/ blue sky with white clouds

Workers…

Stone mason. Artisan. Old school…by hand and sheer might.
Farms seem to require no more machinery than one versatile Massey Ferguson tractor. The farms seem to be no larger than what one family with one tractor can manage.
When this tractor first passed me I was stunned to see the dog balanced on a green barrel. It turns out the barrel has been cut to form a cradle. The master can continue to work the farm with its senior dog.
Nine hours of walking deserves time to smell the roses.