day  04 - draft
Saturday, 9 April 2016
Aumont-Aubrac to Nasbinals
026 km today - 116 km to date

First at breakfast at 7 am and leave at 7:40.  When I can't pick up the white and red route markers I use the position of the sun to tell me where east.  But my ready reckoning is for the southern hemisphere where the sun is north, so my chosen direction is way off and I head off down the wrong road.  While the markings are good, when there is only one apparent road they can be well spaced out.  About an hour later everything is sorted and I resolve to get a lightweight guide to go in the pouch on my chest.

At the first village the church is open and about a kilometre on the chapel in the centre of a cross roads is also open. Some cares for this place as the Missal is open at the Evangile (Gospel) reading for today.

When navigating some particularly difficult terrain (water logged from side to side) I noticed two people about 300 metres behind and a group of three or four a greater distance ahead.

After 15 km the group ahead stops for a rest: three of them had been at my gite last night.  I persevere for one km more where I encounter a snack bar and decide to stop for my porridge and buy a sandwich and coffee.  So begins a game of leap frog.

About an hour on the group of three have stopped again and the fourth is stopped a little further on.  As I can't see any route markers and there are two ways ahead I ask if she can help.  She can: she has a lightweight Michelin guide for the way from Le Puy to the Spanish border.

I arrive at my intended destination for today, Nasbinals, about 3 pm.  The neat and tidy ancient church in the middle of the town is open and then on to find the gite.  This one is relatively new and owned and operated by the local community.  I register by writing my name on the list of beds in one of the dortoir  (dormitories), go and get some food for dinner and for lunch on Sunday. And a Michelin Guide of my own!   Dinner is an impromptu collective affair and much fun.  The woman who had given me directions tells me about her trip to Iona and I tell her about the Norwegian kings buried there ( a renowned holy place in its time) more than a millennia ago.  When she is certain she has understood she passes this on to the company.

What makes me seem to stand out is not just my apparent level of fitness for my apparent age but also the “kilt” I am wearing.

And so to bed.