Sauges – Nasbinals
72.5km, 6hrs, 1398m total climb
Woke up to the sun heating the tent
which is always a good start. We shared another box of cereal, packed
up and hit the road.
From the planned route we could expect
a few long climbs, we were also staying above 1000m for most of the
day.
We stopped at a couple more St Jacobs
route chapels on the way, weather was good and we saw plenty of other
pilgrims on the way. We stopped for a coffee in one village and spoke
to an old Australian guy who was walking the route on his own. He had
come from Nepal where he was trekking recently, and after this walk,
he was off to Holland for his Daughter’s wedding. We told him where
we were going for the day, and he said he would take another 4 days
to reach there! It's much faster by bike!
When we got to Nasbinals, we saw a sign
on the way in that the Campsite was closed until the beginning of
June, so we needed to find a hotel. The main square of the town had a
hotel and restaurant, but it looked packed, so we followed another
sign that we saw on the way in, to a hotel just outside town. We got
there and the door was open, but noone home. Then I noticed a message
on the desk saying to go to the main hotel in the centre village to
make a reservation – doh! So we went back and this time I went in
and asked if they had any rooms at the other hotel. It was full. And
so was this one. BUT, they had one room left which they would let us
have cheap. I had a look and it was OK, but had no toilet, just a
shower, the toilet was in the hall. No big issue. The problem was
that the room was used to store laundry I think, and the big window
of the room opened into a conservatory that all the maids were
working in, with washing machines and ironing everywhere. Anyway, it
was the only option and good for 30 Euros.
We had a beer sitting in the sun
outside, and then went up to the room. There were no curtains for the
room, so we wanted to hang the tent up over the window, but the
confused maid who was standing folding sheets right outside the
window said we shouldn't. Cue a long and confused conversation in bad
French that there were no curtains etc and we needed to dry the tent.
Anyway she said they were all going home in 5 mins, so we just waited
and then hung up the tent. The room was also roasting and I was
looking for the aircon. I found a control switch near the lightswitch
and pressed down to lower the temperature. As I held it down, an
electric window blind started to lower itself over the window –
doh! I wish the maid had just said that (maybe she did?).
We went to the tiny local shop and
bought stuff for tuna, onion and rocket pasta with lemon cooked on
our fire-hazard stove in the room. Was very nice.
http://ridewithgps.com/trips/1308188
 |
| Leaving the Haute Loire region and entering Lozere |
 |
| Did we take a wrong turn somewhere? |
 |
| Donkeys don’t go as fast downhill as we can |
 |
| Most fields were full of Daffodils all day |
 |
| Nasbinals |
No comments:
Post a Comment