Head Full Of Lightning: Day One - Tuesday October 19

Departed: Le Puy-en-Velay 9:45am
Arrived: Saint-Privat d'Allier 2:45pm
Total hours: 5
Total kms: 24
Weather: Very cold and overcast

Not too bad for a first day's effort. I left late, and was walking quite quickly due to stupidly not buying any food or water before I left, then finding out the little towns are practically abandoned during the off season (which seems to start officially on October 15 - the day I left Australia).

Before I left, I went to Catholic Mass in the Cathedral. Partly because the priest invited me, partly because I thought it would be fun to start that way considering the religious overtones of the walk, partly because he assured me it would be short.

It was a bit weird. The Cathedral was beautiful, of course. Up the front was a huge display that looked like it would have been at home in the chamber of a Disneyland ride. A huge circle of hanging ornate urns, golden angels in worshipful poses, and a huge Black Virgin, with the crowned head of Jesus punching out of her stomach like he was auditioning for the lead role in Aliens 4 - Mass Destruction. As I was trying to process this, a bell rang loudly and a squat priest walked out, his countenance so serious I nearly laughed. Fortunately I didn't, that probably would have highly offended the other people there, who all knew when to kneel, stand and sit (there was a lot of that), who all knew what words to say and sing and when to say or sing them, and who generally all looked as serious as the priest.

There's a lot of singing in a Catholic Mass. Every five minutes somebody's singing again. It does sound pretty amazing in the cathedral, what with the natural amplification and reverb. Even the priest, whose neck was lost in the folds of his robe, and whose mouth was lost in the folds of his neck, sounded good.

At the end the priest called together myself and two girls, also pilgrims. He asked where we were from (fortunately Alfred the German was with me and told me this - in German), then we all had to sing a song in French and he gave us each a little plastic brooch with a photo of the Virgin Mary statue on it. I havn't seen the girls again; either they stayed longer, walked faster or just went home after they got their plastic brooch.

After this, my French host Guy took me out to show me the path. This was fun because he understood almost nothing I said, and I understood almost nothing he said. We had a good laugh when we taught each other the words for left, right and straight ahead. He did somehow manage to teach me the very important signage of the Road To Santiago - stripes to show the right way and crosses to warn of the wrong. Simple but easy to miss if you're not looking for them.

The first hour or so was all uphill, but it led me out of town quickly which was great. The rest of the day was spent walking along a variety of roads - gravel, grass, stone, mud, tarred, etc, mainly through country and woods but sometimes through small towns. These were almost entirely desolate except for dogs. I got the impression some medieval wizard had put a curse on the townsfolk and converted them all to canines. Dogs sat in yards, walked down the street, hung out in front of closed bars. Most of them ignored me, merely glancing at me then going back about their business, like people do.

I finally arrived in the town where I am now, starving and thirsting, and found all the shops closed until 4pm. And I thought siestas were only in Spain! I know for tomorrow though, and have already bought fruit, water and chocolate for the walk.

I'm in a room that should house six pilgrims, but I'm the only one - I guess there are some perks to walking in the off season. There are three other pilgrims here - an elderly couple and a younger girl, but the manager put them in other rooms (I'm not sure if that was for their sake or mine). I finally did some washing in the sink (yes, I'm even wearing my undies inside out right now) and as I'm on ly own I've draped them all out to dry over the not-very-warm heater. In fact, if they're dry by tomorrow; including my "quick-drying" towel, I'll be surprised.