On Friday (March 18th), I departed St;-Privat d'Allier and set out for Saugues. I knew that this would be a tough stage as it was where I quit in January. Retracing my steps was interesting. I ran into Daniel (from Lyon) along the way, right before entering the town of Monistrol d'Allier, and that was a Godsend. Why? Because the ascent from Monistrol d'Allier is among the toughest in the whole French part of the Camino. One ascends 1,420 feet in only 2.5 miles. Having a fellow hiker along is a real plus.
The ascent was a bear, and precisely at the point that I quit for the first time (January) I wanted to quit again! Daniel and I encouraged each other greatly. You climb and climb and climb... and then you climb some more. We were so high that I was certain that heaven was only a few hundred feet away! Progress was slow, and it took two hours to make 2.5 miles. We were both bathed in sweat the entire climb even though it was only 45° outside. We were also drinking a lot of water, draining our camelbacks (a modern canteen).
The guide book (¨Miam Miam Dodo¨) to the Camino de Santiago is full of maps, withicons pointing out water taps. Much to our chagrin, a lot of these taps are shut off during the winter, especially at high altitudes. Carrying water is a balancing act, because each quart adds 2.2 pounds to your backpack. So you depend on these taps/fountains. Well, with the difficult climb we both ran dry. Fortunately we came into a village (15 houses) and asked a lady for some of her water. Water never tasted so good!
We eventually made it to Saugues -- only about 8 miles, but a hard-fought stage. At Saugues we checked into our gîte, which was a rather sterile place (no meal offered). So we had to go shopping. We prepared a small feast and then went right to sleep (there's nothing like sleeping with a warm stomach).
