Via Podiensis (April 21-23, 2025) Cahors to Mosaic. The Easter rains had left the trail a muddy mess, “le boue”, as it is known. This kind of mud is made up of clay and it is very slippery making it difficult to take a step without sliding. Every muscle in my body tensed up in an effort to keep me from falling. It was exhausting and, as it turned out, something that we would contend with all the way to Saint Jean-Pied-de-Port.
[Music] Good morning and we are leaving Kapor after two days of rest and it was pretty nice. It’s funny how it, you know, you look forward to it so much but then you gets pretty antsy by day two. So we’re happy to be back on the road and this is a 24 km day approximately. The toughest part is going to be getting out of town. It’s a big climb. Big surprise. It’s about 50°. It rained overnight. It just stopped and it looks like we’ll be good for a few days. We thought we’d have to wear all our gear this morning when we woke up. There’s been flooding everywhere in around Europe. We’re supposedly coming into easier terrain in general, so can’t say I’m sorry about that. [Music] We’ve just left the where we had a uh Easter Sunday rest day. Made ourselves a lovely Easter dinner of roast chicken and aliggo mashed potato dish of the region, some spring vegetables and some bread. It was really delicious. 6 years ago today, Steven and I uh took off from St. John Pedapore on our very first Camino on our way to Santiago. And I swore when it was over, that was it. I was one and done. Never again. I loved it. I had a great time. But that was it for me. And here I am 6 years later still walking. It’s been fabulous. But it has been difficult. One thing that’s different about this one is we don’t go through little towns. We’ve only been through one all day today. And we had lunch there. That was our first one. We had our first coffee after 7:00 in the morning at lunch. That’s pretty unusual. We had a little rain, so the trail’s kind of wet. I met another pilgrim this morning who walked and talked my pace and we had a really nice time together and walking for a couple of hours. And uh when we had lunch, we said goodbye. Maybe I’ll see her again. Maybe I won’t. That is just the way of the Camino. [Music] [Music] We’re about uh 10 km into our trip today. Probably another 4 hours to go. I think it’s about a total of 24 km. Even though it’s a 23 something or it’s probably going to be 25 at the end of the day, I’m always finding that there’s about a kilometer and a half added to whatever we think it’s going to be or 2 km. It’s very rarely less than we expect it to be. So, it’s now 3:12. We’ve been going for about what 7 hours, 8 hours. How you feeling? I’m surprised at how long these days are compared to what we used to do. We used to get up, go have breakfast, go have second breakfast after walking a little bit, and then by 1:00 it’s like we were just down in a couple of beers cuz we were at our destination. No, it did feel that way. It just never felt like it took all day. It’s a hard trail, but it’s still I mean I think I’m walking faster than I’ve ever walked and I’m shocked that it takes all damn day for us to get to where we’re going. I know. We always seem to get in around the same time. I know. We could leave at 7:15 and we still get in at 4. Right. We leave at 8:30, we still get in at 4. It’s crazy. 1.6 km to Lasaban. Is that how you pronounce it? Lasaban. Yeah. Yeah. But we’re about half a kilometer before town, so we’re almost there. [Music] [Music] Even after 21 days on the trail, I still feel a sense of accomplishment arriving at our destination each day. So far, aside from minor aches and pains, we are all in good shape. So, that’s worth celebrating. [Music] Good morning. Day [Music] 20 one. I think we just got out of the cab. We took the cab 10 kilometers to um basically the next town because we realized that the trip today was over 26 km and when we looked at the how difficult it was going to be it was rated as at moderate to uh strenuous that’s that word I’m always trying to remember strenuous. So we have a 24 km walk tomorrow and yesterday was you know fairly long. So we said we were going to to to shave some kilometers off this and take a cap to the next big town. Next big town was 10 km. We got a taxi. We shared it with another guy and that has basically shaved our our day down to about 15 or 16 which is a lot more manageable. So, we just had our lunch made up uh at the local epissery. From a steep downhill, we’re already in the muck in the countryside. Yeah. And this is what I mean by muk. It is very, very muddy. Yeah. Lovely. Yeah. This is how muddy it is. You can see. Wow. That’s Yeah. Always got to look behind. [Music] I mentioned before that when we look at our distance for the day, we also consider weather and terrain. But when there’s sustained rain, a new contender surfaces in the shape of mud. It not only makes things more difficult to traverse, but also more treacherous. On more than one occasion, we had to turn back because we deemed the trail impassible and frankly dangerous. This is lavender fields. Without the lavender, it’s not quite bloomed. Not bloomed at all actually yet. Yeah. Muddy. This been like this all morning. So, as you can see, we actually got off the GR65. We’re not sure where, but it’s saying 2 km back to it, but we are heading in the same general direction, kind of parallel to it. So hopefully that just means a small deviation to the kilometers for the day. Road walking can be a welcome alternative to slloshing about in the mock, but it brings its own set of challenges. Okay, car. Well, I think I hear one. No, it’s it turned in. Some of these roads feel like they can only accommodate one vehicle at a time, and with all the blind spots around bends and curves, it makes for very anxious walking. You know, the Vapodans is seriously lacking picnic tables, benches of any kind, and public toilets. At least in our experience, there have been days where there’s literally nowhere to sit to either rest or eat food. So, we’ve had to just plop ourselves on the ground when we could go no further. [Music] [Music] I’m just going to keep motoring. I’m not. I heard one of you guys imitating me. I did. Well, look at this guy. So cute. The rain and wind came and went today. We chose the road less traveled. Or is it more traveled? We were certainly not alone in choosing an alternative to the treacherous trail. Still, we made it to Rejit and our night’s stay there was quite wonderful actually. And the miracle of it all, we are ready to do it all over again. [Music] [Music] [Music] I am so surprised that this is an upward trajectory out of town or out of the jeet anyway. There is a bus. I know. Whichever stop [Music] Come on. Hey, did you take your leave? Yes, I did. That’s good. Going to be doing a blood test later to make sure you’re not lying to me. [Music] Uh, day 22. 23. Day 23 and we are coming out of Lozer and we stayed at a lovely jeet uh run by um an Irish woman and her French husband. He’s Jean Pierre. I can’t remember her name. Um anyway, it was really really nice lovely chats and of uh very animated dinner last night with a entirely English speaking table which was really fun. So, we’re just dreading all the mud today because yesterday ended up being about 16 17 km and it felt like it was a really long day as it was and that was after taking our 10 km cab. Today we are doing no such thing. It does say that 63 or 64% of this particular trail is paved which is good but it’s the unpaved part that we’re worried about. We could do 24 km no problem if it was just pretty straightforward without the mud. The weather is pretty nice. I mean, it’s very foggy out right now. That’s what it’s like at the moment. And um it’s about mid-40s brisk, but I like it that way. [Music] So, this is just all mud and sludge. We’re walking up through like a little stream. The mud in particular seems to have been kicked up mostly by other pilgrims just making the grounds really soft and keeping it that way. You just feel the absolute weight of your pack and trying to navigate all of this stuff, all of this slushy terrain. [Music] [Music] We are always happy to find an alternative to the busier main roads. Today we found a quiet one on the way to Arjit and met up with our Australian friends who helped pass the time with stimulating and fun conversations. [Music] Despite it feeling like a really long day, we actually arrived at Arjet well before it was open. Thankfully, they had a covered area where we could rest while we waited. As we pilgrims, we certainly appreciate this thoughtfulness. [Music] Tomorrow promises full sun and maybe a better, drier day on the trail.