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14 September 2026 - Bigose

Started off the day with some yoga before breaking camp. I abandoned my first pair of shoes as an offering at a roadside shrine. Whenever I see little statues of Jesus on the roadside in my head I seem to always hear the Hulk shout "puny god!" The road after La Falzet is fairly flat although always going slowly upward. There are some small villages that do have places to get water. Eventually the road leads into the forest. Le Sauvage is a resort at the top of the hill with a restaurant and store. It was still early morning when I arrived, so I got coffee and a sandwich, beer, and mead for later.

At the Chappelle Saint Roch one crosses from the Haute-Loire into Lozère. The long slow downhill was pleasant and I even found a cold stream to put my feet in for a while. Washing my feet in cool stream requires stopping, putting down my bag, taking my shoes off, and peeling off my socks, but I never regret it. As with many things the stopping is really the hard part. But sitting there I was even able to convince a passing woman of the wisdom of stopping, and she joined me. On the hill down into St. Alban I met and had a conversation with William, who I would see many more times until the last day, when he also stopped in Moissac. And having lunch in a restaurant I first encountered Hiro, who I would practice my Japanese on for the next few days and planned to also end his journey in Moissac two days after me. My inner thighs have become quite chafed from the holes in my shorts. So I read for a while and drank a couple local beers.

After the break in Saint-Alban-sur-Limagnole I headed back out into the scrub and forest. Around 5:30 I stopped in the forest and ate my sandwich and drank my beer from the morning. Then I walked on until sunset and setup my tent in a field. No cows this time though.