Maureen and Frank walked by and left an hour before us.
We got ready and climbed for one hour to the minute...
The views were stunning, and were the only thing to keep me going.
Conques thirty minutes later...
At the top was a small chapel to Saint Faith, so precious, we prayed together.
I would a few hours later read that water from a near by stream would fix eye ailments. I wear contacts and couldn't think of any opportunity missed unless that could be reversed, no eye problems here....( ding ding ding ding)....
We passed a man heading in the opposite direction who spoke no English but looked like he wanted to chat with us. He did say " a quarter" and I figured he meant about 15 more minutes of climbing up.... He was right!!!!
The little church...
St Roche not to be confused with St Francis, with his loyal dog bringing him bread each night...
Stopped at this church with recent donated Windows that were gorgeous..,
My stash of the day...with Heather!
Maureen and Frank's niece, Heather, is fighting lymphoma and she too is kicking its butt... They gather Heather as they walk and keep it with them, I am going to continue this and pray for her all the way to Santiago, my shadow shows the heather in my front pouch..,
Filling water, very important not to run out...this special shelter provides it for pilgrims, a priceless gift!
The normal stopping point for tonight was Decazeville, on the map there was a town 4 kilometers away that had the river run through it. I usually can pick out a great town and pushed everyone on especially after arriving to Decazeville and not feeling it was where we should stop.
Instantly out of town we stopped to refill water and use a public bathroom that was made of metal. Reichen came out of it and said," wow, that was one neat bathroom!" I instantly remembered back on Steve's and my honeymoon in Southern France saying the exact same thing when I noticed the bathroom actually shut behind me and totally steam clean itself between each use. I was telling this to Reichen without even looking over at the bathroom when we heard a blood curdling scream yelling," mom"!!!!!!! Bronwyn who is about as brave as any girl can be was IN the self cleaning bathroom having entered while Reichen exited! So it was cleaning with her in it as the door didn't shut between his exit and her entering. It was awful!!!! She was screaming, I was far off yelling I would get her, the boys were yelling at her " push the button" and all of a sudden she emerged crying and terrified...a few minutes later she was giggling and by the time I am writing I can assure you it is now a funny story in her life....
So we have shared Karsh getting stuck, Bronwyn getting stuck and I still need to share my " getting stuck" story, that will be a post of its own when I find the time:)
Up the hill half way to our four kilometer location a host of a gite affiliated with a church urged us to join them for dinner, a group of French pilgrims who knew of us added to the invite and she offered up her garden. Gites are what albergues are in Spain. You can't beat the prices when there is only one or two of you. Gites are about 20 Euros a night and dinner about 17. So for 50 US dollars you can sleep in large areas and eat but if you times that by all six of us you are looking at a good $200 a night, hence the camping! We almost stayed, the company was awesome but I had a huge desire to dip my feet into what I imagined was flowing water in the next town.
We arrived in thirty minutes or so to a campground that was less than stellar. We didn't really care, we have no real demands. There were domesticated rabbits running around, ducks, a huge sweet lazy dog and showers so I was OK!
They didn't take a credit card and I had on me an amount that typically covered us in campsites, their price was high and exceeded what I had, the guy shrugged and insisted what I had would do ( it was close and this campsite should not have been more).
Right when we got settled an English speaking French gal came around the corner and said her father wanted to meet us. Her dad was the man we passed on the top of the hill near the small chapel who encouraged us the hike up hill only had fifteen more minutes. Ends up she is a pilgrim and her parents are on their last day of following along in their camper. Her parents were precious, her mom a beauty and her dad just so inquisitive on our hike. They were so encouraging and walked to the river with me to soak my feet. The non flowing river where their daughter would say," mosquitos are really bad here"....
Did I share I am exhausted....?
Dog on the blog...reminded me of Que who we adopted, deaf at fourteen years old. We had one wonderful year with him!!!! Adopting older dogs is the best!!!
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