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  I had the urge to do a wild, totally uncalled for mountain bike trip for my b-day. So I decidedto check out the french part of the Camino de Santiago, starting from Puy en Velay and going for 3 days until I got somewhere ... who knows where. This is Saint-Privat d'Allier, on day 1. |
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 Crossing the Allier river (I believe). |
 Chapelle Sainte Madeleine built into the cliff on my first and only realclimb of the trip. |
 Some of the very few baby-heads on the generally fantastic trails, all very well marked. |  Descent into Saugues. My knoots are frozen solid! |  Somewhere in the middle of absolutely nowhere on an interminable false flat uphill while freezing my peanuts off. |  Maybe if I make faces I'll warm up. |  I'd be dryer if I was riding through a lake. It is beautiful, though. |  Ferme Le Sauvage. The name says it all. Did I mention that my walnuts are frozen? |  I believe I'm wetter than those cows in the background. |  Beautiful green everywhere. |  So
finally I make it to Aumont Aubrac after spending a wet but comfortable
night in the tent in the middle of nowhere. Cool, there's a train
station. Hey, there's even a traincoming in an hour to get me back home! So I strip off my swimsuit and change into dry rags (see following picture). And I wait. One hour passes. Another half hour more. And a further half hour. No train. My nutcrackers are frozen again by now. Where in lord's name is this train? Turns out the guy driving the train forgot to feed his goldfish before he left on his daily ride up and down this nearly abandonned line, so he put the choo choo in reverse and went back home. By that time he was already so late, that he decided there probably wasn't any point in leaving again. So no train today! Sorry folks. Go jump in a lake. |  Does anybody have a microwave? I need to defrost some jingle berries. |  So I ended up staying overnight in a great little gite, jam-packed with pilgr'ms and eating verytasty mashed potatoes with cheese, a regional specialty called Aligot. The day after, I got picked up by a pilgr'm taxi service who took me back to Puy and the car. So in the end, a wet wet fantastic ride. Good times. |
