Today was one of the best walking days I think we’ve had, certainly the best of this trip so far! But before we get on to the day, a bit of an update on last night and this morning – as the day wore on we could see cyclists arriving at the hotel and a few larking around in the pool but when we went down to the bar for a pre-dinner drink there looked like about a hundred of them crowding into the fairly tiny bar area. Eventually they moved to an area set aside for them and we managed to get a drink or two but the biggest shock was when we went down for breakfast the next morning! I have never seen locusts swarming but I imagine it to be like these cyclists over the breakfast buffet – as soon as anything was put out it was immediately demolished! It turns out to be an annual event a bank in Geneva puts on for their staff – a 4 day cycle through France complete with a support van! Good work if you can get it I suppose…
Anyway, despite the hectic breakfast, we got away just on 8am in fairly chilly conditions with beautiful clear skies travelling on sealed and dirt roads, past the village of La Chaze-du-Peyre and on to Lasbros where we hoped for a coffee after about 7km and 1 1/2 hrs but unfortunately the cafe did not open for another 30 minutes so we pushed on to the hamlet of Les Quatre Chemins where we did manage to get a coffee.
We are still in the high country up until the first stop we were passing through undulating farmlands. After the stop we headed down a narrow, sometimes boggy path and the surroundings changed to much rougher country not unlike the Scottish highlands. Not many farmhouses but lots of cattle that are brought up here for the summer after the snow melts.
Another 5km on, and close to today’s peak of 1245m, we had lunch at the tiny hamlet of Fineyrols at a Gite d’Etape that sold coffees and snack out of a wooden shed by the road. This is the main difference we have noticed compared to Spain – instead of regularly going through fairly substantial towns we are only going through very tiny villages (not even villages really!) with very limited options for eating.
From Fineyrols we travelled by a variety of surfaces, including some pretty rocky tracks through similar countryside, through Montgros, where we had a couple of beers and on to Nasbinals. Just before we got into town we came to a t-junction where the dirt track met the road into town and fortunately Al happened to look left (the trail turned to the right) and spotted our hotel about 800m out of town! It’s a very weird set up – they have a hotel in town as well and when we arrived there was a sign saying to call that hotel (in French). Well, I did and the guy let me know the room number, I grabbed to key off the rack and that seemed to be the check-in! We’ll head into to town for dinner later cause there’s nothing here! Lucky we had the beers in Montgros🍺.
27 kilometres today and 127.5 in total. After 5 days walking we are finally further away from Le Puy than the runners who did the longest section of Le Grand Trail du St Jacques (117km) – don’t think I’ll be signing up for that anytime
steelewalking 
Another exciting day in the highlands !
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