So I did mention we thought we had dodged a bullet by catching a bus up and out of Conques?. That may well be true – but there was one rather large bullet to come. Zebra from Najera had warned me. i thought it would be short and sharp. But she was right! heading out of Decazeville and up to Saint Roche was a big f,,,king hill! Lucky for us it was only 35 degrees celcius and we had obtained sustainance from a strange looking kebab and taco shop before we commenced our ascent. We also had umbrellas.

Oh sure there were those fitter than us who had likely not yet encountered the slings and arrows of life, who pranced up that damn hill like it was a walk in the park. And then there was us. Well more specifically then there was me!

It kept going up and up and up. And just when you thought there could be no more ups, we would turn a corner and there was another damn up! Someone read a sign that suggested it was 20 degrees – was that possible ? Anyway we eventually arrived at a very small village and found our gite and followed instructions to leave our packs in the shed and let ourselves in to our room. We had to follow the french anti bed bug rules and take our gear upstairs in buckets.

After that hill we felt a great sense of achievement. We had walked together again for the first time in 8 years and we laughed a lot. In fact we laughed so much that I found the lack of oxygen impeding my mountain climbing prowess. It also hindered my ability to walk 2 metres at times as I was curled over laughing. It was genuinely a great day. And frankly the first time I had been in the presence of English speakers all day for quite a while. I had not realised how conversing in another language was so exhausting. But then so is laughing and hiking.

Our host for the evening was very concerned for our well being and went to great lengths to ensure our comfort. There was only one other lone pilgrim in another room and the four of us enjoyed a communal meal of french home cooking before wandering over to admire the view and contemplating the possibility of locating a local river pool the next day enroute to our next gite!

Au revoir