Psalm 13:5-6

We left my Cousin’s place shortly after eight fortified with cafe and bread. There is a picture of his house beer, Antidote. It worked. Huge stone table.

Climbed a couple of hills and then cruised across some flat plateau until we reached the town of Aumont-Aubrac before 10 am. Cool rabbit cages. I don’t think they are pets. Also check out the stylish French fire house. Got some victuals and looked at the local church before walking on pavement on our way out of town.

Reached the cute village of Le Chaze-de-Peyre where a farmer supplied us with delicious, almost freezing water. He told us that the village water was no good. They did have a nice WC and you never pass them up. The church had one of the few steeples that we have seen in a village.

A short while later we stopped at the Chapelle de Bastide which sits kind of lonely at a road intersection. We had reached our planned stop by early afternoon. Made the decision to continue to a gite where we could get food. Getting used to this kind of camping. Anyway, that would make our walk 23 km. We were both feeling good at the time and decided to go for it.

Had a nice picnic around km 15 with our Bon companions from Quebec and a young man who was doing some serious walking.

We finally started walking through some remote fields that had been created by moving untold millions of large stones and using them as walls. Now these were not your run of the mill stacking stones. Many had to weigh tons. They were not moved by Hebrew slaves or not even willing Egyptian peasants under the supervision of Pharaoh’s engineers. These rocks were moved with teams of oxen and human ingenuity. Backhoe operators would have been kept busy for decades.
Their motivation was not to provide a home for the Pharaoh’s afterlife but simply to eat. The effort was stupendous and must have taken centuries.

The rocks also ended up channeling water down these lanes and creating mud for us to navigate. Thankfully they have pallets in France. We were able to navigate through several bogs while keeping dry thanks to the versatile wooden platforms.

We were getting tired when we encountered a friendly burro who cheered us up enough to make it to Les Quatre-Chemins where I helped the ancient proprietress to open a Perrier for us. Somewhat refreshed we headed off for the final 4.5 km.

Hot showers, laundry and getting ready for dinner. We are tired but still smiling. Short day tomorrow, promise. Going for Nasbinal where we can rest before dealing with Mt. Aubrac and Le Bête the following day.

The pictures are jumbled. Sorry.