Chemin 10 - le jour d’enfer - St Chély d’Aubrac à Espalion

Yesterday was delightful at the Hotel Coudercous, a lovely room looking out on the town. Delicious dinner of La Côte de Bœuf pour deux with the Aligot, a wonderful Auvergnaut dish of potato purée whipped with a fresh Tome cheese, gooey especially good with extra pepper. The beef was delicious, Aubrac speciality, ~ 1 1/2 “ thick, perfectly cooked, real flavor. We were looking at 13.8 mi today with a lot of down and some up as we descend to the Lot département and the Lot river. We decided to get a taxi part of the way initially, taking almost 4 miles from the total. Delightful taxi ride with a young man, who readily admitted that he hated school, spent 4 years working as a carpenter but found it too hard and has been driving taxi for 2 years. No bus service in this small town, so the taxi business is good. Meredith’s Achilles tendon was tender but we thought we had it under control. It was a beautiful walk down, down, down, many different geological and ecological layers - beautiful ash and beech forest. Then birch and chestnut, then a wonderful dense chestnut forest, holly, …. All the while descending on very rocky steep paths where you really had to pay attention! Very slow going and hard on feet, ankles and sense of humor. We were much warmer with bright sun. Check out the stats up above, down 2706’ and up 1350’. The steps really tell you the story though, coming in at 14.8 miles compared to 12.2 mi gps - short steps and a lot of them! We got to a beautiful medieval town, Saint Côme d’Olt around 2:30, had a tea & coffee and headed out for what we expected was a 4 mile level stroll along the gurgling Lot river, flanked by beautiful tall poplars/cottonwoods. We followed the trail markers, well aware that there was a variant along the GR6 that was much more intense up and down. We should have known as we started to climb and diverge from the Lot but the trail markers were for the GR65, so I figured it was just a slight diversion… It was brutal, adding another 2.5 miles and endless up and back down. We got into Espalion around 6 and faced another killing climb on steep streets to our Chambre d’hôte. Thé propriétaire had tried to call us and offer to pick us up but we missed it. Day from hell, we’ll take tomorrow off!