You saw the stars in yesterday’s blog. Now, sunrise from my window around 6 AM. The sky glowed.
We started by 8 AM to take advantage of the cool weather. The Aubrac has very limited shade as we learned. Shortly after leaving Nasbinals, we passed a threesome with the man towing a wagon. My first such occurrence on any multi-day hike. It will probably be hard to maneuver the wagon on the tracks that were yet to come. You’ll see what I mean.
Believe it or not. We came upon a lengthy and thick stand of trees! The image can’t capture how the sunlight filtered through the gaps between the trees. Beauty in nature.
As we turned away from the trees, the starkness of the Aubrac presented itself. A cow by its lonesome on this vast plain. Where were her companions?
Our final ascent consisted of ruts along the hillside. Remember our wagon driver? Mt Gudette stands in the background peering over the Aubrac.
After that final ascent, we started on a long downward slope that brought us to the village of Aubrac and its main town square. We ordered our mid-morning cafe au lait and settled in for our well-earned break. The L’Annexe d’Aubrac was decorated in a late 19th, early 20th Century style. Two chandeliers had translucent glass scallop shells (the symbol of the Camino) hanging from its frame.
We finished our coffee and started further downward until we reached an outlook. An information board stated that we had left the Aubrac Plateau. Pilgrims of old had exited the dangerous area of unpredictable weather, usually bad, of a barren land with limited food and water, and of marauding brigands. They were now safe to more comfortably walk on.
The image below looks west from that point. I’ll be traversing the land beyond the horizon to reach St Jean Pied-du-Port.
The first test after the point was the steep rocky path where we carefully placed each step. We went on for a mile with these rocks underfoot. Towards the bottom of the path, we encountered a cow nursing her calf.
We reached Saint-Chely-d’Aubrac by 2 PM because of the short distance of this stage. We stopped for lunch — mine was liquid bread. Other hikers that we have seen throughout the past days walked on to other destinations or stopped for lunch and drink as well.
We relaxed at our table until 4 PM when we were able to check into our hotel which was about 200 meters down the main street from where we had sat. In this village as the one before, the owners appeared to have several places to house tourists. The tourists then come to a central hotel for breakfast and dinner. As the Chemin becomes even more popular, this model of expansion seems to be quite successful and lucrative.
Before dinner, Monique and I took a walk around the village. We crossed the pilgrims’ bridge and walked through the village square. The people must be doing quite well. Several buildings were being renovated — gutted and the outer stone walls being realigned and pointed. You can imagine what that must cost.
Time for dinner. We opted to try the regional meats rather than the buffet. My cut was in the foreground — very good though it might not meet American tastes because of its leanness. I gave fellow travelers almost a half of my cut.
The roasted veggies were excellent as rated by our panel of experts. Condiments were brought to table for the pommes frites. American mayo! Of course, the ever present Heinz in Europe.
No aligot or cheese tonight though they were on the menu.
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