Finding treasure on the Camino de Santiago

21st May 2022

“Tenacity isn’t just the most important thing, it’s the only thing” Mavis Leno

Day 14 – Limogne en Quercy to Mars de Vers

25.4kms and 36 831 steps. Total: 354kms and +- 98 Hours of walking – 33 degrees

Today I had an internal meltdown. I am so not good in heat. I have endurance you all know this. You all know I can be on the road for 12 hours if I have to and make it in time for a medal. What gets to my brain and my logic is the heat. It creeps in slowly and just takes over. Today was reportedly a 33 deg day. It was meant to be an easy day i.e., 22kms. However at some point it turned into 25 which felt like fifty because of the heat. The walk today had little shade and many of the paths were extremely rocky.

I struggled to find beauty (in the moment) around me as my feet got progressively hotter and like a fire was lit under them. I kept having a good old talk to myself about appreciating what I have and what I’m doing …… and my brain and heart were just not in the mood.

Jennie, Charles, Ann and I walked together from the start for the first 10kms in relative cool and it was was lovely. Charles and I chatted away about the world of work and I could hear Ann and Jennie chatting away behind us. We stopped in Varaire for a break. Nothing open but we used the chairs in the garden of a restaurant for our own picnic. The village was having a concert that evening so plenty of activity in the square.

Charles suggested we take an alternate route which would shorten the total route a bit but would require some road walking. Considering the heat we jumped at the idea. The deviation ended up being 4kms of scary wild road, car dodging, hot tar walking between 12h00 and 13h00. You don’t need many words to paint a picture of what that was like. I felt sorry for Charles as I could feel him taking on the burden of protecting us all from the oncoming kamakazi cars. I breathed a sigh of relief when the road veered off into a quiet lane again. Whew!

The sun got hotter and hotter and the road less and less shady. The rocks rockier and my feet burnyier and burnyier ( yes, I know it’s not a word, it’s my made up word!). I got quietly more and more freaked out by the heat and pain in my feet and decided at kilometer 19 that there was no friggen way I was walking tomorrow.

We were due to walk to Lalbenque and pick up an arranged shuttle to take us to Cahors where we would so wet be three nights. Same shuttle would collect us on Sunday morning and take us back to the spot they collected us the day before so we could walk into Cahors.

Walking to Lalbenque (off the route) would add on three kms to our 25 so when Ann was calling her host to collect them at Mas de Vers (on the route) I asked her to please call our shuttle too. They fetched us at Mas de Vers and I announced to Jennie I was not walking the next day. I needed to rest my feet and get out of the heat. Jennie jumped on the bandwagon and asked the driver please not to report for duty the next day.

We drive into Cahors and we are checked in and as I sat down on my bed and took off my socks I knew I’d made the right call. My feet were as red as beets and on fire. My legs were full of red blotches a bit like bites.

Today I made a decision to listen to my soul not my ego. Ego was banished today and I decided to rest. My feet will appreciate this on Tuesday morning when I walk 33km. Listen to your inner voice and listen to your body. Life lessons we keep receiving. Listen listen listen!

Camino Gifts

– listening to my inner voice and resting for two days

– my body and what it’s capable of

Watch this space for more life lessons, pics and a beautiful journey of not just discovering beautiful places also beautiful parts of me ♥️