We woke up very early today to get on the walk to make sure we got our boots and walking sticks. So far no bad incidents. I think we can rest a bit more assured about this system of keeping boots away from walking pilgrims for the night. The whole is dead quiet. All other pilgrims still sound asleep. We move about I the dark as there were no light by the boot shelves. May be this is the main problem for getting boots mixed up. I cleaned my faithful, all broken in and all muddy boots really well on the inside, making sure every little pieces of sand and rock are thrown out. Theses are great nuisance once you get on the walk. I put my clean boots on in the dark.

The gite in st comes d’olt offers breakfast but very late. 8 am to 9 am. What happens to 7 am? We decided we will skip their breakfast to start our day early. No burning daylight hour waiting around for breakfast. A long walk us ahead of us.

Across the street is a bakery. She opened at 7 am which is one hour later than other villages where bakeries mostly open at 6 am. They supply bread for the whole village so they do start early in the morning. We got a couple of scones to start the day. No coffee. The system in the small French villages is kind of interesting. The bakery sells bread and other pies, but does not sell cheese or sausages to eat with the bread. You need to go get the cheese or sausage at the charcuterie. And neither places would have any coffee. You would need to go to the coffee shop for coffee. There is no such thing here I a small village that would resemble a 7-eleven where it’s a one stop shop for everything, coffee and donuts in the morning, drink and a sandwich for lunch, and even some soap and shampoo all in the same store!

All we heard was that the walk today is amongst the most beautiful walk of the camino Le Puy. We also heard that the toughest part of this camino was the first 3 days. The first thing turned out to be very true. It was a gorgeous section. So beautiful words just can’t do justice. I don’t think I can describe it. The second thing turned out to be not so true. This section was so tough it ranked probably as the hardest day so far for us.

We started climbing early in the day. Climbing and climbing and more climbing. There were just extremely steep, very steep, or steep hills. After each steep section, we kept wishing it would level out to a flatter hill but after a while we just kind of give up hoping for anything flat. We just keep hunkering down and putting one step forward and tackling the steep hills as best as we could.

Today’s incredible walk between St Côme d’Olt and Estaing in the upper valley, is a UNESCO World Heritage site. Pitched roofs of hand-hewn tiles called lauzes blend in harmony with bejeweled Romanesque churches along this pilgrim route to Compostela.

We finally came to another section of hill that looks like it is straight up. We met a local French man on his morning walk. We asked him if this is the right way, pointing to the steep hill straight up. He said it is the right way. Then he described what to expect next. After this steep section, there is another straight up section. He described it with his arm going straight up. Then after that it goes straight down. Then he pointed his arm straight down. He did that a couple of time. I got dizzy just watching him. Then he said you will get to a section of big rocks. But no worries, the donkeys can do it so you should be able to do it! Well, donkeys walk on all 4 legs. Do we have to walk on all 4 arms and legs too?

Then he added: it rained yesterday. Those rocks are dangerous. Most people get hurt on this section because of those rocks. Make sure you pay extra attention but you will see the best view here. He was right on. The view was magnificent. And unfortunately he was also right on about all the straight up and straight down and all the slippery rocks part too!

It was a very slow day for us. We moved forward so slowly. Half the usual speed. We got to the top of the hill and found the statue of the “virgin of notre dame de vermus”, with a magnificent view of the whole valley of the Lot river underneath the statue.

We kept on walking and finally arrived into Espallion for a short break. Ed was dying for some coffee since we left the town so early and he could not get any coffee as nobody was open yet and we had been walking for hours inside forest or hills of rocks. We got to a brasserie by the outdoor market for a break. The little village is bustling this morning with the market gathering of colorful fresh vegetable and cheese and meat. We sat and people watch for a few minutes. Ed left to go inside to buy a cup of coffee. I waited for a long time. He got back and sat next to me. No coffee. I asked him: what happened? You went to the bathroom? He said “no, I tried to order coffee but I could not. I asked for a cappuccino. The guy said no cappuccino. He said a bunch of stuff. Coffee this and coffee that. I don’t know what he said”.

So I walked in and asked him for a tall big caffe Americano, with a little bit of cream or milk. The guy had a big smile. He said you want “un grand creme leger”. Ok, what ever he calls it, I just wanted to get Ed some coffee. He’s dying for coffee. Later I spoke to some other French pilgrims on the way to sort out our coffee dilemma, I think what Ed needs to order from now on is a tall or large caffe creme leger. The French tend to drink small cup of espresso that’s very strong. That’s what he should order. No more cappuccino. We are not in Italy! Actually we should be able to order cappuccino as were doing that for 10 days, I was not sure why the coffee man this morning got confused.

We kept on walking and climbing up and down. The hike was quite strenuous. While we were on top of the mountain, I got a bee stuck in my hair! Nothing scarier than the loud buzzing sound of a bee next to your ear! I turned my head to the left then to the right but the buzzing was there and no way of getting rid of it! I screamed out to Ed for help. He took off my hat, used his hand to rough up my whole head of hair trying to find where the bee was hiding. He slapped my head right and left and somehow managed to loosen the bee which was quite furious by now. It flew out but then flew back and hid in my hair again! Another session of me screaming my head off from the buzzing of the bee in my ear and Ed slapping my head of hair round and round trying to loosen up the bee. It was quite a strange scene on top of the mountain. The bee followed me for a while. Ed said “that bee really liked you somehow”. It did not care for Ed too much. Later after some thinking I figured out why the bee went into my hair. I just bought some new shampoo. It’s honey flavor. May be the bee thought it was going into its hive of honey? That’s my only explanation for the bee attack today.

We picked some fresh apples today for lunch. We took a break for lunch by the steps of the mairie which was in the shade and ate a good hearty pilgrim lunch in company of a cute little French cat. I had 10 green gage plums today and they were the best! Sweet and so tasty! I think I had found my favorite fruit here in France!

We started back hiking after lunch. It’s a hike and a half today. We gave our whole body a good work out! Aches and pains everywhere!

We suffered. Boy did we suffer today. By the end of the day, we arrived into Estaing. All beaten up! But the mere view of the quaint village upon arriving made the hike all worth while.

Estaing is a very attractive medieval town, with lots of fine medieval and renaissance period houses to admire as you explore, both in the village centre and along the banks of the Lot river.

The village is dominated by the Chateau of the Estaing family, also dating from the 15th century and open to the public. The castle is currently owned by ex-President of France Valery Giscard d’Estaing, having recently reacquired the chateau that was lost to the Estaing family after the revolution.

The Church of Saint-Fleuret in the centre of Estaing was built in the 15th century and is unusual in appearance because it has both a steeple and a bell-tower.

Other notable attractions in the village are a lovely wrought iron cross and a gothic stone bridge across the Lot river. The bridge was built in the 16th century and is a listed UNESCO World Heritage site as part of the pilgrim route to Santiago de Compostella.

Interesting pilgrims we met today are a couple from England, a man from Norway who’s going to Santiago and he walks so fast he was flying by and soon left us in a blink of a eye. Another man from Zurich going to Santiago walking from Geneva and it took him only 3 weeks to get here where we were. He too was flying with his boots. That was fast! Very fast!

Near the end of the day we met a man from Austria walking to Santiago. Ed asked him “ca va?” Like a real French man. The Austrian said back to Ed slowly in French “I don’t speak French very well. Please speak to me slowly”. Well rehearsed. Ed of course can’t understand him so he went on to his next French sentence “ca va bien” finally the two of them figured out they both don’t speak any French. Then they went on speaking German for a while before they parted. It was all a lot of fun for Ed just messing around with different languages!

Today is day 10 for us on this trip. I remember this was the magic number on the camino frances in Spain going from st Jean pied de port to Santiago last year. After 10 days walking I started to feel good, all aches and pain were gone last year by day 10.

This year, day 10 is much more pleasant. I think to go on a long distance walk especially overseas, you need at least 10 days to get going. Don’t do anything shorter than this. Simply because of the change in time, the jet lag etc … We need 5 days to get adjusted to the new time zone and definitely 5 days to get our legs and body in shape for the walk. The first few days when we arrived, we had to lay down in bed and sleep. We were exhausted. A nap before we can eat dinner. Now we arrive, we can take a walk into the village to visit the church before dinner.

So far we don’t have any blisters and we would like to keep it that way. Blisters are what the pilgrims are most fearful of. They can really slow our walk down, sometimes pilgrims have to give up walking because their feet are too painful so we were very lucky in this regard. We saw many limping pilgrims, mostly pain from blisters.

Next are back ache, shoulder ache from carrying the backpack, hip pain from too much walking and knee problem. Sometimes people already have these problems before they start the walk and long distance walking would just aggravate existing problems. Sometime they developed them on the walk, a small twist of the ankle can set you back or a fall or a slip.

The trail itself is beautiful. Very very beautiful. The walk is pleasant but it’s not easy. It’s not extremely hard but it is not a flat walk. It is quite a hike. Lots if climbing and lots of descent. Sometime steeper than other. Sometimes milder. But you are constantly going up and down.

The trail can be compact dirt which is very nice on the feet. But there were section of rocks. And rocks and rain do not combine very well. It’s actually dangerous. The slippery rocks are just like a slide or a slip waiting to happen. You have to walk with high alert, paying attention to where you put your feet or else it’s big trouble.

There were no technical difficulty but you do have to be in good shape or else you will go very slowly or very short distance to avoid discomfit to your body.

The accommodation are very very satisfactory or nice. We are not talking about 5 stars hotels but much better than tenting in the woods and cold bath in the river. It’s all a matter of perspective. As pilgrims or long distance walkers, our demands are very simple. A bed to sleep for the night, a hot shower to keep clean and food to eat to keep from being hungry.

One pilgrim on the walk is very interesting. He eats a big breakfast and dinner. During the day he eat dry fruit. Nothing else. He wants the true pilgrim experience of being “autonome”. Not too much commerce involves he says. For us the first few days we brought more fruits, more snacks because things are new and we got excited and bought all kinds of stuff. But now we know exact what we need to keep from being too hungry. Just enough food for the day. This way we don’t have to carry too much and also eat left over which becomes stale bread. By knowing exactly what we need we can get fresh stuff for the day. But it take a couple of days to get use to and know what to plan for the walk.

For us, ideally, we would like to walk 12 to 15 miles a day. That’s the most pleasant. It’s let us come in early. Not too tired. Have enough time to rest and visit the town. I think we finally future out what the best way for us to go on a very long walk and not hurt our body and have a very enjoyable time. This distance allows us enough rest to go on the next day. No ache and pain. I think each person must find out what his or her own limits are. Young people can certainly go faster and farther. And done older people are more fit than other.

You must do your own walk. Figure out for yourself what are your limits and not race with anybody. Not follow any body else time schedule and above all, do not judge or compare your walk with anybody else walk. Each person walk their own camino and that is why you need to figure this out for yourself.

Many pilgrims went on to Espalion yesterday afternoon and we decided to stay back in st come d’olt. We had enough for the day. It was nice that we figured out what works best for us, that way we can plan for a much better and healthier camino.

We are lucky and blessed to have been able to do this far and feel absolutely fabulous. We are tired for sure, at the end of the day but a good night sleep seems to be all we needs. No need for anything else. We are confident we will finish the camino Le Puy without difficulty. That is a very nice feeling.

Estaing is a beautiful and very very quaint and extraordinary village. The only problem is: there is no internet anywhere. Not one place has Internet. Finally we food a good connection after some asking around and we were told to go to a little place where we sat out side the front porch next to a bunch of other teenagers. We worked for 2 hours in the fresh air before heading to diner.

I went to bed exhausted but Ed stayed up a little longer to read all the prayers and petitions people have sent us. If you would like us to read a prayer or petition please send it to DrKondrot@HealingTheEye.com