Lodève to St Jean de la Blaquière, 19.6 km
I got to the top of the hill before it started raining. Taking my pack off to extract my poncho was when I realized that I’d left my water bottles in the gîte’s fridge. Nice though the bottles were, they weren’t nice enough to retrace the 5 km down the steep hill. I’ll just have to go back to the Andaz in Maui to get replacements! Fortunately it was a cool day with only 15 km, so not having water was not a big deal. In the hamlet at the 12 km mark, a guy called out from a literal hole in the wall asking if I wanted a coffee. He also sold water, so all was good. It’s the first hamlet with coffee available. Things are looking up.
There was a noticeable change in the geology today, with a lot of limestone outcrops, and not necessarily the grippy type of limestone, as per the above photo. At one point I thought I’d teleported into a NZ kanuka bush walk – although the wild lavender was a giveaway. There’s a lot more vineyards, and I even passed through an ancient olive grove. If it had been clear, the Med would have been visible (according to the “table of orientation” placed on the high point above one village.
Tonight’s gîte is very busy. Not everyone is a pèlerin, judging by the amount of denim being worn. It’s in a tiny village and the playbook has everyone eating at the little epicierie/restaurant – providing you go up at 1700 to reserve a place for dinner at 1900. Lasagna is on the menu de pèlerin – and I think it’s the same every night! The volunteer who runs the gîte is quite a character (despite the language barrier) and is rounding up everyone for the dinner offer. Maybe she’s the cook in her spare time!
A post script to the post: Christophe, who runs the gîte in Lodève, just turned up at tonight’s gîte with my water bottles. He is good friends with Nathalie, who runs this gîte. The camino provides! I guess there’s now no urgent need to go back to Maui!
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