Day 10 It's getting hotter! (Conques à Livinhac-le-Haut - 25 km)
Today started with a test for the legs - 10 minutes of steep downhill on the stone streets leaving town followed by 30 minutes of very steep climbing on the notorious rock-strewn, narrow path. As mentioned yesterday, climbing is my forte so it was non-stop to the top of the hill. A great way to break into a sweat.
I was on my own for the first 8 km and caught up with Dan at the first available spot to have a café au lait. Kate arrived shortly afterwards with a Camino sister Ankemarie from Germany. She began her journey in Geneva and intends to go to Pamplona where she began her first Camino a few years ago. In keeping with our Camino naming conventions, she will now be referred to as Santamaria. We hope to see much more of her on our journey as she has a wonderful attitude about life and she fits right into our family.
Dan and I walked together for most of the rest of the day. Each town we enter, whether or be for our end of the day accommodation or for a rest stop, always seems to be either on top of a hill or in a valley. Today was no exception. Conques is in a deep valley so we had the steep morning climb. Decazeville, our lunch stop, another deep valley and climb. Livinac-le-Haut, you guessed it, another valley and anticipated climb in the morning. The temperature today reached the upper 20s so the climbs definitely contributed to a good workout and lots of sweating. Additionally, most of today was on the quiet, paved back roads so the asphalt also kept the temperature up. Don't get me wrong, I will never complain about the beautiful weather we are having. I'm just stating the facts.
Dan continued a few km down the road and planned to camp with Lucie and Clément tonight. We'll see if he makes it there. 😁 The five of us will be staying in the same place tomorrow which should be a great time.
After ten days of walking, we have covered almost 250 km - about a third of the way to our initial destination of Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port and about 1/6 of the way to Santiago - if I decide to continue on the Camino Frances.
