Day 8 - A great day for a hike (Estaing à Espeyrac - 24 km)
The day started with a delicious gîte breakfast consisting of coffee, orange juice, bread, butter, homemade preserves, and yogurt. We then headed directly to the boulangerie to get some bread, fruit and fixings for sandwiches as there would be little support along today's route. Dan and I decided to take the variant GR 6 which took us over top of the mountains and provided some incredible views while Kate decided to take the main GR 65 route. Our route was quite challenging with some very long ascents and some very steep, shorter descents. In the first hour we walked through a dense forest that seemed exactly like a West Coast forest. During the times when we walked along farmers' fields or on small country roads, we saw many blackberry bushes that were filled and even though they are not all ripe we had a good feed.
Once again the weather was perfect for us and we thoroughly enjoyed each other's company as we wandered along following the markers. At one point after coming out of the forest and seeing the incredible vista in front of us, Dan commented that we are two of the richest people in the world right now. I could not agree with him more. On the final push to our destination, we found a perfect spot to chill down our feet - a daily tradition if at all possible. On our entire 24 km journey today, Dan and I saw no other pilgrims which is a first for us.
The three of us stayed in different locations tonight. Dan went camping with our very good pilgrim friends Clément and Lucie, Kate went to a very new municipal gîte, and I stayed in a gite that gave me a weird feeling - I'll talk about that some other day.
Tomorrow will be a very short day but it will allow us to get some sightseeing done. A demain!
