The Hills Are Alive...

With the sound of swearing! Because I'm really freaking tired of hills. Up. Down. Up. Down. Up up up and down down down! It never stops, leaving me completely exhausted after just 10 miles or so when I was so hoping I'd be able to walk farther. And certainly get to my destination sooner. The only real benefit is that the views from the hillsides tend to be gorgeous here in the Vallée du Célé (the variant I'm taking because there are caves I want to visit).

So today I have some complaints. Like the fact that I started off with my sunglasses but after one of my breaks this morning on the way up a hill, I forgot that I'd had them on and left them alongside the trail. So I swore. Not a whole lot, because I don't, just one exclamation. They were prescription, too! Which means they'll cost a lot to replace and I can't even do that until after I get home.

My knee also still hurts, and my right ankle has been bothering me the past couple of days. Though strangely it bothered me more yesterday while I was wearing my boots than it did today wearing my sandals. Go figure. But I also have a new blister on my instep because of the sandals. And wearing them, plus the food I carried today, made my pack heavier. And I have some kind of rash on the underside of my upper arm...

It's not all bad, though. The first day of this variant I saw a cute red squirrel jump onto a tree from a bridge. And I saw deer! Briefly, and only their butts, but at least I saw them even if I wasn't able to get a picture.

I  saw a snake yesterday. It wasn't very far away. Don't ask my why it waited until I was only two or three feet away before it decided to hiss and move off the path (during which I did not move because I heard it before I saw it) since I was making enough noise that it should have heard me long before that. I have no idea what kind of snake it was so no, Mom, I don't know if it was poisonous. It was just greenish/brownish, spotted, and hissed at being disturbed.

Overall I think my experience walking has been good. I'm over whatever little panic attacks I was having toward the beginning and have just decided that I'll do what I can and if I end up skipping, or maybe coming back some other time to finish, then so be it. I feel pretty good despite everything. It must be all the endorphins rushing in from the exercise because the walking itself is not necessarily what I would call fun. Not when I'm panting and sweating and sometimes almost collapsing by the side of the trail because of going uphill or the heat, or both.

But something one of the hospitaliers said has stuck with me. I've come to a foreign country by myself, and am walking an unfamiliar trail alone, so I can have confidence in myself. I may not be doing exactly what I set out to do, taking things slow, but what I've done so far is quite an accomplishment. It's something that no one else I've known has done or has even really considered doing. I haven't counted, but I'm sure I've walked well over a hundred miles by now. And that's something!