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Day 10: Saugues to Aumont-Aubrac (46.5km) In search of aligot.
For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move; to feel the needs and hitches of our life more clearly; to come down off this feather-bed of civilization, and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Robert Louis…
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Day 9: Le Puy-en-Velay to Saugues (42km) Meeting Jean-Claude, the world’s greatest nut spitter
No great genius has ever existed without a touch of madness. Aristotle The day, which started with high solemnity, was clouded by tragedy and ended in high farce. I have little memory of the last time I was in Le Puy-en-Velay some 35 years ago when I embarked on the Chemin de St Jacques (GR65)…
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Day 8: Chomelix to Le Puy-en-Velay.(37km) Full Circle.
“Begin at the beginning,” the King said, very gravely,”and go on till you come to the end: then stop.” Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland What a difference a day makes. Whereas yesterday’s walk was sometimes an arduous trudge through apocalyptic weather conditions, today’s weather was largely benign and walking was a pleasure. When…
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Day 7: Marols to Chomelix (37km) Singing in the Rain
Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! rage! blow! You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout Till you have drench’d our steeples, drown’d the cocks! William Shakespeare – King Lear It was hammering down when I woke up and I was in no hurry to depart Jacques and Sylvie’s. The previous evening we had spent a good few hours chatting about…
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Day 6: Champdieu to Marols (31km) Thriving in adversity
Sweet are the uses of adversity,Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;And this our life, exempt from public haunt,Find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,Sermons in stones, and good in everything. William Shakespeare – As You Like It. The weather forecast for the day ahead was…
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Day 5: Bully to Champdieu (46.5km) Every cloud has a silver lining
Water,water every where, Nor any a drop to drink The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Simon Taylor Coleridge Today’s challenge was to see if I could walk the best part of 30 miles in pouring rain, largely on tarmac roads without eating anything for 24 hours. Well I succeeded, but in all honesty it…
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Day 4: Noailly to Bully (43.5km) In praise of communal gites.
C’est dans les utopies d’aujourd’hui que sont les solutions de demain Pierre Rabhi When I peeked out of the window at 6am, things looked pretty gloomy. Michael, whom I’d met in Cluny, and Renaud, had both warned me that the weather was due to deteriorate during the week. When I voiced these concerns to Michel…
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Day 3: col de la Bûche to Noailly (35 km) A stroll in the sun
It happens sometimes that we meet people – even perfect strangers – who interest us at first glance, quite suddenly and unexpectedly, before a word has been spoken. Fyodr Dostoyevsky – Crime and Punishment Today would have been a fairly unremarkable days walk were it not for the remarkable people encountered during the day: my…
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Day 2: St Jacques-des-Ârret to col de la Bûche (43km) A marathon day.
Life is a marathon, not a sprint and in the end the race is only against yourself. It is only when you walk 43km (or 26 miles) that you realise what a superhuman effort running a marathon entails. I ran the London Marathon nearly 20 years ago in 2005. It was gruelling and not hugely…
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Day 1: Cluny to St Jacques-des-Ârret (36km) In the company of pilgrims
Penicillin cures, but wine makes people happy. Alexander Fleming One of the great pleasures of walking the pilgrim routes of Europe is the chance encounters with other pilgrims and pilgrim host families. Before you set out, you can never be entirely sure whom you’ll meet but the chances are that the random encounters that you…
Welcome to my blog! I’m Jonathan, a 60 year old Brit who is passionate about long distance walking.
In May 2024 I’m setting off from Land’s End to walk 1,200 miles, the length of Britain, to John O’Groats.
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Pilgrim's Progress - Long Distance Walks in Europe and the UK 