Day 13: Stage 10: Eguzon

26 km, sunny and hot! +25°

An Oasis!

I thought this would be a fairly straightforward and easy stage, so I didn’t leave until 8 o’clock. Silly me! I spent the day climbing up and then back down the sides of Le Creuse River gorge. Repeat the process about four times and now I’m pooped out! Over and above that, it was the best day of walking so far! This is what I’ve come to expect and enjoy about walking in France.

I had forgotten that this is a regulated river, meaning that they are controlling the out flows upstream at a dam.

As you can see, it was a beautiful start to the day. I was on trails most of the day which made for some lovely walk. Large parts of the trails were still muddy, but things are slowly drying up. The ground was so saturated.

One of the things I enjoy about walking rally in the EU are the local businesses that travel to the small villages and communities. This fellow was going village to village where he would drive up, honk his horn and then sell various types of meat.

And thanks to this fellow, I found some pink piggies for Ciara!😂

I also received a couple of photos of two wild boars from Hil. She asked me to send them on to my grandchildren as we had discussed my dilemma when walking a few days ago. People always support each other on the Camino!🙂

Then it was time to hike back down and along the river again for a while.

The water was really moving! The warning signs up everywhere about suddenly releases from the dam, even on sunny days. We’ve walked in these sudden release areas before, and I can tell you that it doesn’t make me feel very comfortable.

I walked right up to the lower dam.

Watching the water being released was amazing, not to mention loud.

And then it was a very steep, but beautiful climb up out of the river valley. Puff, puff, puff!

Once finally up top, it was back on the trails.

And then I arrived at the medieval town of Gargilesse which is where the two variants that departed from Vézelay rejoin. Its chateau standing out together with the tourist groups who had arrived to look around.

I thought about stopping to eat something, but it was still early and it was a slower passage than I had anticipated. It was also getting hotter and I didn’t want to hang around too long.

Lots of nice hills in this area complete with villages. I much prefer walking in this sort of terrain.

There were friends along the way…

And more flowers than I’ve seen on the entire walk so far

And then it was down a quite precarious trail, which of course led back to the reservoir.

Nice little waterfalls all over the place today.

I did cross this bridge.

And then I started to climb again, and it was getting pretty warm. So warm that I pulled on my cycling sleeves to protect my arms from the hot sun.

And then it happened. An oasis showed up right in front of me! I’m pretty sure I didn’t imagine it, right? It seemed so real.

Just to be sure, I ordered some lunch as well.😎

From here, it was a 3 km uphill walk into town. I bid a reluctant farewell to the oasis with its shady umbrellas and moved on.

Soaked with sweat I arrived.

My landlord has fixed my toilet, and I’ve just received an email from Hil telling me that she’s also here after an even longer day than my own. I think we’re going to go and have a beer and then I’ll come back to my little apartment and make myself some dinner. While I was waiting for the toilet repair guy to come by I popped over to the grocery store.

Tomorrow is going to be an even hotter day than today and it will be a longer stage than today. My plan is to be up and out the door before 6:30. Let’s see if I can make this happen.

Bon chemin!

Geoff🍺☀️🍺