Chasing After Jess

Today was incredibly long and mentally challenging. Our accommodation last night was unfortunately subpar, and we did not sleep well at all before a 30km day. Despite these drawbacks, there were some positives: the shower was hot, the dinner, though bland, was edible, and we shared our small 4-bed dormitory with two lovely French ladies.

Determined to leave as soon as possible, we set out at first light and were rewarded with a beautiful, cool morning and dawn. However, we knew we had extra distance to cover today and had to carry additional food and water, making our backpacks extra heavy.

As we stayed just out of Lauzerte, the day started with an ascent up into this small town. There was a beautiful view at the top, and the quiet streets looked like art work.

The path wound through orchards and vineyards and was very muddy in places.

When the sun came out, the humidity was unpleasant. We tackled the increased kilometre goal slowly, facing many extended uphills. The day was beautiful, and honestly the challenge was more mental than physical. It gets to a point on the journey when your body is just used to getting up every day and walking. It does become a second nature. What is hard is convincing yourself you can walk. Waking up early, packing your bag again and again, tying up your laces and setting out knowing it will be hot, knowing you have 30km to face, knowing you had a bad sleep and it will feel harder than it should. Thankfully I came across a lovely donativo with fresh cherries and a beautiful view.

I’ve had friends ask me what I do to pass the time while I walk. Jokingly I replied, “On a good day I’ll listen to music, a podcast, the sound of nature or talk to my Mum or other hikers. On a bad day I listen to my thoughts.”

Although I was kidding, it’s true – the Camino is a huge place of self reflection and there is no better place for it than a 30km day. However, talking to fellow pilgrims, now more than just acquaintances, like Herman, Darn, and Stephanie from Northern France, helped pass the time on this seemingly endless day. Stephanie shared that she had sustained an injury since we last seen her—a barb had pierced the web between her fingers, causing an infection that required antibiotics. Though the wound had healed, it left a scar. Darn’s company helped us push through the final stretch into the beautiful town of Moissac. We were very happy with our modern apartment located in the Town square opposite the Abbey of Saint-Pierre.

The Abbey has been home to religious people for nearly a thousand years. Its cloisters and the church’s main portal are UNESCO World Heritage sites, part of the Pilgrimage to Saint-James of Compostela. It was beautiful, and a must see along the route.

While we waited for the keys to be available for our little apartment, we decided to sit in the town square and have something to eat. We always seem to arrive at an awkward time where nothing is open for food and is only selling drinks – but thankfully the waitress was kind and told me about a self-serve pizza machine and said I could bring the pizza back and she’d give me a plate.

Once it reached 3pm, we checked into our little place. To my delight, it had a kitchen. I love any place that has a kitchen as it means I don’t need to worry about eating dinner out. Another thing that I loved was that it had a washing machine! It was in a great location too, being right in the square where the cathedral is.

After a hot shower and washing my clothes (everything in my backpack got washed just in case), I got into bed early and for some reason fell asleep at about 5pm. My mum visited the Abbey and sat in the square enjoying a drink in the warm evening, and even got to watch a procession of Nuns singing.

Unfortunately I woke up at about 9pm and had another sleepless night. We were faced with 2 issues:

1. It was really hot so we wanted the window open

2. But if we had the window open, we could hear a cat which cried the entire night

Luckily for us, we knew the next day was going to be much shorter and much easier

Jess