Camino Dagboek: From Saugues to La Sauvage and beyond

2 May2019

Bonjour Shingi,

We are now in Saint Album Sur Limagnole after a fifteen-kilometre hike from Le Sauvage. It was overcast and frigid all the way. The weather forecast predicts snow in the next couple of days. Exciting times are ahead.

Yesterday we walked from Saugues to Le Sauvage and stayed in a gìte on a farm. It is like Meerendal but much bigger and better and very French!

According to our Michelin guidebook, it is nineteen kilometres and five hours, but alas, we measured twenty-three with Endomondo, which took us seven and a half hours. The time is no surprise because we often stop for photos and drink in the environment's beauty. As Punda says: "While you can see, you must look."

One thing that we love about the French is the picnic lunch. Thus we are now on a new quest to find the perfect picnic spot in France. It is quite a challenge; just as you thought this was the perfect spot, you will find another a hundred meters down the road.

Yesterday's second picnic did not qualify at all. It came about like this. As it befits a good wife, Mpanzi thinks about the washing long in advance, and the mutual consent was: "Let's keep on walking to get to the gìte in good time to do the washing." But Punda got tired and, after some deliberation, suggested that we take a break to eat what was left of our picnic. So we stopped, put down the Masai blanket, took off our shoes and started munching bread with ham and cheese. Out of nowhere, a tractor arrived and parked twenty meters away. The driver got out, took out a chainsaw and started to cut wood. Well, that picnic spot was rated zero out of ten.

Two days ago, at dinner in Saugues, we met a friendly French family from Normandy. Patric and Christine, their son Bertrand, and his wife, Mary. It was so lovely to talk to them. They told us about Mont Saint Michel in Normanby, one of the world's modern seven wonders. We could share South Africa's wonder, Table mountain, with them. Punda introduced me to them, and I even had my photo taken with Mary and her father-in-law at the breakfast table this morning. I hope Punda and Mpanzi can also share a walk like this with their children sometime in the future.

Do you remember the guy we met in Le Puy who was walking because he was healed from cancer? Today we had a related experience. In Les Faux, we stopped at the only place on today's route where you could help yourself to coffee. There were some carved wooden walking poles with a note that said you can take one if you are walking for someone with cancer. We took one and left a donation in the box. Punda is now walking with that staff. I think he was crying when we left that place, but he said the tears were due to the cold wind. I am not so sure about that.

Now it's time to post some pictures.