Via Podiensis – Days 13-15 ( Conques – Espagnac)

[Music] Rain on the trail changes everything. Wearing ponchos or raincoats, our hoods obscure all but what’s directly ahead. The day is measured in meters, not kilome. It can also make for a long walk because there isn’t much to break the monotony. Sounds pretty grim, right? [Music] Maybe this is the path and that’s the road. Maybe trying to figure out the alternate route that was suggested to us. Take the road instead of the actual climb because of the rain. It’s like really dangerous. So, we’re just trying to figure out exactly where this alternate path is. Think we’re on it, but we want to be absolutely sure. How many How many kilometers is this town? Seven. 6.5. All right. We just had it confirmed by somebody who seems to know what they’re talking about. Some running guy. So, we’re even happier than we were a minute ago. That’s somebody who does that for fun. Exactly. Yes. In no life, afterlife or fun. pre-life would we ever are bad pilgrims. We don’t care. Hello, Olaf. Hello. The rain also limits what cameras I can use to record the day’s activities. My video camera, for instance, is not waterproof at all, so it stays in my bag. I’m mostly limited to photographs using my phone, but honestly, that’s fine. Trying to shoot video and photographs and navigate the trail requires a lot of multitasking. And it’s not always ideal. When it rains, it actually becomes less complicated for me. [Music] So this is the official route but we have decided to just take the road because you know just the the weather is the is we just don’t know what would be ahead on the trail. So the road is more reliable and honestly I have that uh blister that I can feel when my feet torque. More cowbell please. [Music] Oh god, that was a long day. That was the first uh rainy day that we’ve had. Um we are arriving at Leven Levenac Loot, something like that. Um after about 24 km. So, it was definitely a serious vlog, but I’m glad that we got through it successfully. [Music] Nice moody morning with lots of fog or I mean at least low clouds. Looking forward to a little bit of sun today. So, we had a hell of a day yesterday in the rain and um Okay, I was rudely interrupted by those garbage guys or those construction guys, whatever. Anyway, um today is yesterday was 24 km or so, so it was pretty hard cuz it was raining all day long. So, I didn’t I wasn’t able to use my Osmo, but apparently it’s no rain today even though it was predicted. We have another 24 km day today. It’s got a 500 meter walk out of town which is about 15 or 1600 feet. That seems to be the most challenging in terms of the up and down of the day. For the rest of the journey, it’s just supposedly unremarkable, meaning that it’s some gentle ups and downs, but I’m kind of curious to see what state the trail is in after all the rain yesterday. Anyway, if it’s too bad, we’ll just take the road like we did yesterday. Okay, here we go. Getting on the trail for the day. [Music] You can’t see town. Is that your boy? There’s town. There’s town. Supposed to be a nice view right there. [Music] [Music] So on a scale to one from 1 to 10il yo bad pilgrim on a scale of 1 to 10 how tired are you this morning? H five, which is like a regular 10, but five on the canino, right? [Music] Yeah. [Music] This is now our second day walking as three since Cindy and Monica departed, and the difference is quite noticeable. It feels a little lonier perhaps, maybe a little easier, less logistical. On the other hand, we were a good team and we shared all our tasks. So maybe it’ll be a little harder in some ways. I guess we’ll just have to adapt. [Music] Anyway, it’ll be a little different from here on out. Almost like starting over in some ways. [Music] For me, walking the trail is like learning to meditate. I think living in a fast-paced technologydriven world can actually impair my ability to slow down. My brain has been trained to multitask and my attention span has dwindled over time. Walking, like meditation, can help me refocus. There’s nothing fast and easy about the commamino. Reaching our destination each day is hardearned. Spending hours at a time just being present to the moment can actually be tough to sustain. With all the fanatic energy in the world, I just think my thoughts are out of alignment. This pilgrimage, while not a cure, can help me reconnect to the natural rhythm of life. [Music] Who’s cute? [Music] [Music] Good morning. Today is the beginning of our third week. Hard to believe. The rain is coming hard and fast again with a bit of rolling thunder thrown in for good measure. This is a very long day, so we decided to shave off the first 7 km by taking a cab up the long hill out of town. This was an easy decision for us as it would have been a total of 28 km otherwise. We’ve also split off from the GR65 in favor of the more scenic GR 651, also known as the Celely variant. Unfortunately, it’s another day that my video camera stays mostly in my bag. [Music] We’re about three away, maybe 2 and 1/2 kilometers to our destination. We have started the celely variant, uh, which has very few amenities. Uh, it’s it’s different from the regular GR 65. Um, so you really have to prepare between these 20 odd kilometer days. Looks like the rain’s going to stop for a few days. We’ve got less distance to cover, but they’re still regarded as being fairly challenging or tough or hard, whatever the expression they use is. This uh particular commamino being one of the hardest that we’ve done. I’m not sure if it’s because we haven’t had a a rest day. This is day 15. Or if it’s just the terrain is more difficult. I think it might be a combination. So, I’m not sure. We’re going to make our minds up about that obviously when it’s all done and see if it rates up there as as being our most challenging. I’m thinking yes, but we’ll see what what else is to come. 3 km left. Okay. [Music] Is that rain or is it just coming off? [Music] Not sure. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music]