Thursday, October 24, 2024
End: Le Vauriat
Kilometers: 19.2
Total: 93.6
It was a very cold night. Even with all of our extra layers, Daniel was in Alex’s sleeping bag before morning arrived, and I was using his extra sheet in addition to mine.
Given that, no one was in a rush to pack up our wet tents and get hiking on such a cold morning. We did eventually get going, and we were on the road again moving on to the next village.
We were soon down the hill into a forest, along muddy backroads. We passed by little hamlets and made our way to St. Pierre-le-Chastel. I remember looking up and seeing a church steeple towering above us up on a hilltop. I was grateful that we wouldn’t be climbing up there, as surely it was too steep a climb from our position to arrive there.
Sure enough, we were soon huffing and puffing up the hill to the top, where the village and its church sit perched over the valley. We took a break and enjoyed the panoramic view.
After our descent and more dirt roads, we entered a magnificent forest. Everything was covered with moss. There were many boulderfields and rock craters, all covered in moss. It was a pleasure to walk through this area. We took a break for a quick lunch, then got out of the forest at Pontgibaud.
This was the last resupply for our family. I had been looking forward to the only decently-sized grocery store on the trail. Alex and I left the group to rest while we quickly walked into town. We made a minor mistake by leaving the bakery for last, finding it to be closed. Thankfully we got plenty of food for the last day and a half of hiking, and returned to the group to continue.
We soon arrived in Saint-Ours, where our friends resupplied, and I grabbed more bread and milk at Alex’s request.
Previously, the boys had been talking about covering a lot of ground this day in order to finish earlier the next day, but it was not to be.
We had taken several breaks and now as we passed the road to Vauriat, we started looking for a spot to camp. We found one in the woods, in a nice spot with lots of soft moss.
The children played in the last minutes of daylight, ans we set up our tent. I had a sandwich with some of our bread, and we got to sleep, ready for the last day on the trail.
