Day 12

    Today was a workout!  Climbing out of the Conques valley was pretty brutal, only to be blasted with heat for the day.  Our walk to our gite was an uphill grind in a furnace. Thankfully, Esther’s blisters didn’t bother her much.

The highlights of the day were the pilgrims we met.  After a week and a half on the Camino, we had not met a single native English speaker.  Today we stopped at a picnic table at the top of an exhausting hill climb, and within minutes, five English speakers joined us, 3 from America and two from England.  Will, a high school English teacher from London walked with us for two hours. We covered a lot from COVID’s effect on students to British and American politics.  We also met Kelly from Los Angeles who was originally from Holland, MI. We had briefly met at the Cathedral in Le Puy the first morning.  Because of time constraints, she will be leaving the rest of the walk in France and jumping ahead to the Spanish portion of the Camino.

     We were apprehensive when we arrived at our gite. A DIY camping van conversion was in progress by the entry, and picnic benches by the road seemed to be the guest table.  It turned out very comfortable, and we were the only guests for the night.  Dinner was great and host very helpful.