Bonjour! What a day I had!
Leaving Saint-Gervais-Sur-Mare
This brick walkway went on for the equivalent of 3 to 4 city blocks.
The scenery was beautiful from the get-go. And the brutal uphill started almost immediately. The rest of the day was severe uphill.
I felt like I was walking through an enchanted forest. Look closely; there is a window set in this hollow tree.
A tiny village on the way, unfortunately, not big enough to have a bar.
I walked along babbling brooks for much of the day. There is no more peaceful sound in the world - so soothing.
In the distance, to the left of this sign, is an old castle.
I saw numerous waterfalls.
I spent the day, mostly lost in this national forest. I saw a sign that said I had 9.75 kilometers to
Murat -Sur -Vebre.
Not lost yet but just wait.
LOST! My technology was sort of working but I lost the trail markers and then I simply couldn't find them again. With google maps to really see where I am, I need to be connected to the internet. I can follow along the trail but not as close as I needed. I kept wandering and wandering for about three-plus hours.
The scenery was beautiful, but I was lost.
After about three and a half hours of wandering, I ran out of water. My water bladder had sprung a leak. Oh, Mon Dieu! After a desperate prayer on my knees, I spotted a wider trail/almost dirt road. The only problem was that I couldn't get there from where I was by trail, so I battened down the hatch (secured my camera and phone) and skittered down the side of the mountain. I whacked my hiking pole at each step to scare off any snakes. It was probably about half the distance of a football field, but I made it without falling. I followed that semi-road to another bigger road that I could see on my technology. As I finally found the trail again, I saw a sign that said 9.5 kilometers. OMG! Just a quarter of a kilometer (820 feet) in all those hours of walking. Oh well, no choice but onward.
Even though I found the trail markers, I decided to walk the highway (not a busy highway) for the rest of the journey. I was so tired. It looked shorter to take the highway, plus I make much better time on the paved road than on the trail.
I walked, and I walked, and I walked. I walked 22.5 mountain miles.
I wanted to cry when I saw this sign. Little did I know that I was still at least three miles from my Albergue. Just past this sign, I saw this SUV parked and pointed in my direction. This woman driver gets out and asks if I am Miss James. I honestly thought she was a mirage. I got in the car, and she drove me to the Albergue. Talk about an angel. She was worried about me because, by this time, it was 6:10. She took me to L'Etape des Menhirs, her home, and hotel.
I knew these were my kind of people. Although my photo is terrible, the first thing that I saw was this room-sized cage with two tabby cats. The enclosure allowed the cats to come from inside the house through a window. Cool beans! I had only seen this in magazines. L'Etape is a simple Albergue, nothing fancy but clean as a whistle. I would have stayed in a pigsty at this point and loved it. First, I drank about a gallon of water and then took a nice long hot bath. My Chemin angel brought dinner to me on a tray. Most of the time, Alburgues don't serve dinner, so there was no restaurant. I had a salad, a cheese plate, beef bourguignon, and this yummy dessert, a vanilla mousse with raspberry topping. What a great ending to such a difficult day.
I was too tired to post the blog yesterday, so you will get two today.
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