day 13: conques to decazeville

Segment 11 out of Conques kicks off with a whooooole lot of up.

It took almost an hour to cover the first two kilometres. It didn’t help that the trail was mostly uneven natural rock – and wet, at that.

One is supposed to be rewarded with a terrific view of the village on the way up, but it was too foggy. Still, the view from the top of the fog resting below the mountaintops with the sun rising above was spectacular.

The fog hung around most of the day, and the trail dipped in and out of it. At one point, there was fog on one side of the trail and a perfect blue sky day on the other – though you can see in the distance where the high plateau drops off into a fog-filled valley again.

Decazeville is perhaps the most modern town I’ve come through on this trip – it even has a McDonald’s. Not very interesting. The trail doesn’t even really go into town, just skirts the edge and goes on another 5 km to Livinhac-le-Haut, the official end point of the segment. I’d be adding those 5 km to my hike the next day – lucky me! But my hotel room did have a tub, which was awfully nice.