nbjtours

Aumont-Aubrac to Le Puy en Velay

60 miles. 4900 ft climbed

Sorry I am updating this blog a bit late as it has been a hectic few hours since our successful arrival in Le Puy on Friday.

We started our last day in Aumont- Aubrac where it was cool and overcast. As usual Nigel sorted out the porridge, tea and coffees and we set off early soon after 7.30 as we needed to get to Le Puy before 4. Dom had to sign on for his trail race by then and we knew there were two big climbs during the day.

The first climb took us up onto the Aubrac plateau in an area known as La Margaride which being at around 1300m above sea level was cool at this time of day so we all had long sleeves and for a while donned rain jackets to keep off the wind.

We had arranged a first early stop which was by the European Bison preservation park who kindly let us use there car park and even stamped our credencials! There was also a few wild narcissi in the fields as well as pretty violas on the roadside.

I decided on a minor amendment to the route as did not fancy any more rough off road tracks and we enjoyed and good down hill and running next to a river for some time. Unbelievably I then had our first puncture on the whole trip just 500m from meeting the camper for our final coffee stop near the top of our final big climb. As we were almost in sight of the camper Nigel hopped in his bike with the stirrup pump so as not to waste any co2 cartridges.

A short cycle from there up to Lac du Bouchet for a brief lunch stop before our final leg of the tour into Le Puy remained. I also prevented the welcoming committee of our expected arrival.

The last section I had planned to run all the way down the former railway from Costaros to Le Puy, now a voie verte, although it was not a fully paved one and the gravel was a bit deep for road bikes. However it did make up for it with a few tunnels and viaducts. The best one over 1 km long.

Just after existing this long tunnel however the next tunnel was closed for repairs until the summer holidays so once again a bit of rerouting meant going down into Le Puy on the main road for the final six miles. We navigated the traffic and then climbed up to the cathedral where Dom could sign on for his race with 45 minutes to spare.

We were met by family, friends and the twinning committee from Le Puy and hugs all around.

Our final act was then to go into the cathedral to get our credencials stamped in the Sacristy to confirm that we had completed our latest adventure.

The weekend starts for the dozen runners from Tonbridge (including Dom) on the Saturday and I will add some updates on that later as well as a reflection piece as usual.

But for now we have completed the Camino in reverse.