We woke up all rested this morning. We got dressed then came downstairs for breakfast. Ready to go, we went to the shelf to get our boots. When we came in yesterday, we were early, the first ones to arrive, we put our boots on the common shelf without thinking about where we actually put them. Now that it’s time to retrieve them, there were 25 pairs of boots on the shelves. As we are having a big hike day, we are having an early start. The whole place is still quiet, nobody up yet. We are the first ones to get our boots on.

If you are a hiker, you know there are only a few boots manufacturers. They are all the same. Ed looked at me: which ones are my boots honey? I don’t know. I am worry about mine too. We looked through the boots. Making sure we picked up the right ones. 2 lessons here: 1/ mark your boots with a maker. Put your name somewhere on the tag. 2/ leave early. You get to pick a good pair of boots. At least you know they fit. I hate to wake up late and there’s only one pair of boots left, you will be stuck with the last pair of boots on the shelf! Last year there were one pilgrim who got the last pair and they were too tight for him. They were not his. It took him 2 days to catch up to the person who got his boots at another Refugio. By then he had developed 2 big blisters because the boots were too tight! The other guy was not very happy neither, the boots turned out to be too big for him and when boots are too big for your feet, your feet rub against the shoes and give you blisters all the same.

We checked and double checked making sure we got the correct boots on. All good ready to go now.

We said good bye to our great host and hostess. They were were kind people. All in all, the got a brand he experience at this gite but they were very well organized and very well kept, clean and organized. They explained that they are battling the bed bugs which are very nasty so they have to take all the necessary precaution to prevent a bed bug infestation. All the kudos to them. We move on to our next stop for today.

It’s our longest day today. We had been taking it easy as we ease into our camino. The first 4 days we average 12 miles but today be get it up to about 18 to 20 miles.

We headed out into the cold morning. We both agreed we could used a pair of gloves and a scarf this morning. I was told that it was very very hot, exceptionally hot this summer. The temperature just dropped suddenly 3 days ago. It is now cold in the morning, pleasant the rest of the day. After an hour walking out of the gite, we got to a forested trail. The trail is well shaded and we kept on climbing higher and higher into the mountain. Ed of course kept telling me we’ve reached the top, we are going to go down soon, but they are just all false peaks. We go up up and up, then we have a slight descent and more uphill. But the walk was very pleasant, the weather was perfect, not too hot, not too cold. We continue to climb up through the forest.

We hiked for 2 hours. My breakfast was by then completely digested. I am starting to feel hungry again. I starting to have vision of a hot cup of chocolate while Ed keeps telling me he could use a hot cup of cappucino. People at the gite were telling us the hardest section of the Le Puy camino is now behind us. The first few days were the hardest. It should be very nice from here on out. Until the very last few days when we reach the Pyrenees mountain and we will have to start climbing again. Ankles support boots are a must in this hike and walking sticks are obligatoire! So last night we went to bed right after dinner. Not that we were going to stay up late for anything but we were really getting to bed as soon as we could because we wanted to wake up early and head out early. We were a bit anxious about our first big day putting in close to 20 miles a day. It was a big deal for us. Then on the climb we met another pilgrim, he is an older man, may be seventy years old, full pack on his back, we asked him where is he heading for tonight, he calmly answered aumont-aubrac! That’s more than 30 miles away! That’s our destination for tomorrow night! We are impressed! Ed started telling me: it’s all mental. We can do that too. Actually we are building to a longer hike in 2 days. We better be ready for that one come in up. So Ed said we have to change our mindset now. 12 miles used to be a short day, 20 miles was a long day. Now we need to up it to 20 miles is a short day and 30 miles is a long day. But better than all this, we just should not count the miles any more. Just wake up every morning and start waking. Walk until late afternoon and come in. No more long or short days. They are all the same. Just walk and we will arrive!

We continue our hike, climbing and climbing. Hoping this is the top. Then comes another hill. More climbing. When finally we got to a cattle gate. More meadows on our right. Hopefully this is it. Top of the climb may be? The birds are singing. Green meadows. Beautiful trees. Another happy day on the Le Puy camino. Unfortunately, more hills. Another climb awaits us. So here we go, climbing again. 2 warrior pilgrims trying to get to the top of this mountain. Another false peak. Finally, the trail started to level out. Walking through beautiful forest. Very very pretty. Quiet. Peaceful. Not a soul in sight. Nobody but the two of us on the trail. Very enjoyable!

Midway to St Roch, we met up with the young Austrian who left out his front door and started to walk on his camino. I walked him where is he heading to for tonight? He said “I don’t know. I will go until I am tired then I will stop”. He said he started out planning everything, planning every single stop for each night way ahead of time. He did that through Austria then through Switzerland. Once he got into France, he stopped planning and just started walking. He said it is so much less stress that way and life is so much more enjoyable. He just walked every day and somehow every night he got a place to sleep and a meal to eat!!!! Isn’t that nice?

After our break we walked on, now joining a family of 6 going for 7 days from Le Put to aumont aubrac. There were 2 little kids: a boy of 8 years old, a girl of 6 years old, their parents and their grand parents. Everybody wearing only a day pack. The rest of their bags are on the back of a donkey! They rented a donkey in Le Puy and the kids are having a grand time! Such precious family time!

We finally arrived to our destination on time and in great shape. At the edge of St Alban en limagnole, we had to walk downhill for one mile to get into the village center. It was a steep downhill. The camino never ceased to surprise you. While I was going downhill I was worried about tomorrow morning when I need to get back onto the trail. I certainly don’t want to climb that steep hill out of town!

As soon as we get to put sleeping place for the night, the first thing I asked was : “do I have to climb back that steep hill to start tomorrow?”. No, it seems we can continue on the other side of the village to get back onto the trail! Good grief! What a relief!

Ah checking in. Not as bad as yesterday. Much simpler. Internet is strong and great and no limit. Not shutting off every 45 minutes. Bags and walking sticks and shoes all go up into the room. All good. I am starting to love this place. Only thing is, very important: the whole place is on lock down after 10 pm. No getting in and out. Alarm on. So do not get out after 10 pm. Ed told me not to worry, his feet are sore. He won’t be going out doing anything after 10 pm. We will see. Every night it’s something different. They really play with your mind on the camino with these strange rules!

Today is a special pilgrim stories sharing day! The camino Le Puy is a very sacred pilgrimage for those who walk the way of St James or St Jacques de Compostelle in French. But a camino is never without pilgrim stories. So today we will share with you some of the stories we have heard so far. Some shared with us while we are walking, some shared at dinner time.

One especially moving story was told by an old pilgrim, a veteran of the camino who has done 9 pilgrimages and must be at least 80 years old when we met him. He is a nice and sweet French man. He told us a camino story but he warned us he is not sure if it is a funny story or a sad story, or if there is a lesson to be learned here, it’s just a camino story he wanted to share with us. So he said one year he was walking the camino de Santiago, he was somewhere in Spain, walking by himself, when he came upon a woman pilgrim who was walking with great difficulty. She was half paralyzed, perhaps from a stroke. Her right arm was held close to her body, properly stuck in place from the stroke. She would make a step forward be moving her left leg forward, then she would drag her right leg up to meet her left leg. She walked slowly. She moved forward slowly, making one step at a time, minding her own business. She was not complaining. She was calm and determined and she just made one step at a time and she just moved slowly forward. For him to watch her walking with such difficulty, he was overcome by emotion. He said he hardly ever speak German. He does not know the woman. He does not know if she is German. But as he walked pass her, he exclaimed in German “this is too much”! That was all he said. He did not know why he said that, what it meant, who made him say such thing, why he said it in German. Afterwards he just walked on. The woman said nothing back to him. She herself kept on walking forward at her insufferably low pace. He arrived to the Refugio when he was going to spend the night, quite early in the day so he got to pick which bed he was going to spend the night. It was a large dormitory so the bunk bed were lined up next to each other such that one’s feet will be next to the next person’s head. It was quite closed quarter in the Spanish Refugio. He went about his business, washing up, resting up then went into town for dinner. He got back to the Refugio after dinner. The dormitory was now almost full. Most of the beds are now taken but the bed next to him was still empty. With a twinkle in his eyes, he said “one can always dream. You never know who’s going to show up and sleep next to you. May be a beautiful woman ..,” and he smiled. Then he went to the bathroom to wash up. He walked by the washing basin. He was stunned by what he saw. The half paralyzed woman was standing by the washing basin and she was doing g her own laundry. How does she do it with only one working hand? But she managed. Slowly but surely, she washed her clothes and cleaned herself up. Then she went into the dormitory. Then she climbed onto the bed next to him to sleep the night. He said that night, all he could think to himself was: she arrived. She did the same walk he did. She is a pilgrim and he is a pilgrim. Both just the same. She had only half a functioning body and she did the same amount of mileage he did. At the end of the day, much later than him, she arrived. And she washed her clothes by herself and she will arrive one day into Santiago just by her own will. Just the same like he will arrive into Santiago. He was very emotional when he said the last thing he said. And that was his story. He left us to think what ever we want to think. Learn what ever we want to learn. Draw what ever lesson we want to draw out of that story. What a beautiful story and we will remember it for a long time! I don’t think I will complaint tomorrow about my sore feet or aching calves. There are people who suffer worse than I do! That’s my lesson for today for sure.

The next pilgrim story that was told on this trip was a middle aged French man who said nine years ago his life was in a lot of confusion. Lots of trouble. Nothing was working out. Relationship problems. Kids problems. Business problems. He was often depressed. Heavy weights on his mind so he took some time off and went on a pilgrimage to Santiago. He did not know what to expect. He did not even know what to ask. He just knew he had to go and walked. He got to O’cebreiro. He entered the church there and he was standing inside the church next to a group of other pilgrims. Suddenly, he saw a light shining through the window and he heard singing. He heard beautiful singing. There were nobody around him but him and the group of pilgrims next to him and nobody is singing. He asked is anybody heard anything and nobody heard the singing not saw any light. He was the only one there who heard it. Then he said there was a shift in him right then and there. He can’t describe it. He does not exactly what happened. But there was definitely a shift. Something happened in that church. He went on and walked on to Santiago. As he continued his walk, he started to feel the weight on his mind starting to shed, he felt lighter and lighter. He came back to his normal life after arriving into Santiago and life just became easier. Things seem to sort themselves out for him. Life has been so much better after the pilgrimage. He can’t explain if it’s him who had changed and therefore his life has changed or somebody fix something that just got everything lined up right for him. He can’t explain anything but since the past pilgrimage he was a much happier person. Now nine years has passed, he decided to go walk the camino again, this time he is hoping to get some clarity on what happened or if he can’t get the explanation he is looking for, may be he will just walk and thank the God above for helping him get over his hardship nine years ago. He was ready eyes when he told his story. He said every time he remember what happened in O’cebreiro, he wants to cry. So he said he is looking forward to getting to O’cebreiro again and he can’t wait to get to Santiago and kneel down next to the shrine of St James. So we wished him Bon courage, Bon voyage and Bon Chemin!