Day 1 Saint Privat d'Allier

Saturday 17 September and what a great first day's walking. It is autumn and the fields are being ploughed after the sweetcorn harvest. This reveals the rich crumbly volcanic soil that needs no further breaking down before it is resown. Coming out of Le Puy-en-Velay you can see the puy lentils at various stages of growth and I am disappointed I didn't try them. The landscape is still quite lumpy and bumpy which I assume is a result of the volcanic activity 2 million years ago, and because of this the fields are small but very fertile. Despite the scorching summer everything is green and lush. 

I had seen a couple of rusting steel cattle crushes (cattle holding stations) that allow close interventions by farmer or vet. The one below is older but is the same design as is still used locally. 

A Chapel that appears to emerge out of the landscape makes for a good excuse to pause.
I had taken a picnic from the last gite but it mirrored breakfast and was too much so I'll avoid them in future. Signage has been amazing and long may that last.


The walk started at 699m above sea level and very gently rose to 1,200m where it afforded fantastic views and a nudge for me to put a second layer on before the decent into tonight's village. Ben Nevis is 1,345m. A German couple walking from Lake Constance to Santiago chatted at the two coffee stops and led me into tonight's accommodation. They will walk 1,500 miles over 4 months with their compliant dog. 

As I was able to check-in at 3pm and today was my planned average of 24km I immediately went out for a 45 minute gentle but undulating road run which was a simple out and back followed by some stretches. I don't plan to do this every day but I do hope I have the energy to repeat this on the shorter days. Today's run allowed me to get a fine photo of the local breed of dairy cow.

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