Monistrol d'Allier to Saugues

This day would take us 433 metres up and 100 down according to our charts. But the charts are quite theoretical it seems and the overall ups and downs are significantly more. Monistrol is down in the bottom of a valley and seems to be the centre of a huge hydro electric generating station. The river rushes rapidly through the centre of town.

As it was straight down to get into town it was straight up to get out of town - 1500 feet according to our friend Jean-Pierre's GPS. It was a beautiful climb along a narrow footpath to get out of town along the edge of the gorges and the views were stunning as we looked back to the town. I enjoyed it immensely in spite of all the heavy huffing and puffing. But for some it is a total nightmare. It was such a narrow path and definitely straight down and would be a real challenge to anyone with any kind of vertigo!
There was a little chapel after the worst part of the gorge walk that was built right into the stone and then stairs took us further up into a little community. A logging road led us from there with several signs promising us food and coffee along the way but nothing was open or even visible. Luckily we had nuts with us and oranges so we had something to eat but there was nothing available to buy over the 13 kilometres of the trip.

We have discovered that unlike the Camino Frances, we definitely cannot count on food or drink along the way. This path has it's own beauty but as others have commented before me, it does not have much of an infrastructure for anyone walking long distances. So it is important that whenever you can find an open store you buy what you want. Don't wait until you get a chance to get settled into a gîte or auberge. Any store will be closed by then. At this time of the year at least, the stores, restaurants and bars close early. Sometimes as early as 5:00 although occasionally as late as 7:00.

So we are definitely too far behind our schedule and I'm quite worried about that. If we can't make more mileage than we are doing in a day our journey of 1000 miles is going to end up falling quite short of the plan.

A comment about the pictures... they do look quite colourless I know but please remember that this is very early spring (beginning of April) and don't judge this beautiful countryside by my photos. I can imagine that in a few weeks this area would be even more stunning! I love that we get so many long distance views that are wonderful in person and hard to capture on camera - at least for someone of my limited photographic expertise.