Day 39: Sickday in Monistrol

So, after I tried to eat some Spaghetti Yesterday I more or less collapsed again. Got high fever with cramps and slured my speech again until I sounded like a stutterer.

Called the doctor of my Insurance company who ordered at least one more sick day and a lot of fluids to drink. Turns out I was severly dehydrated from my sickness which then in turn leads to a weird speechimpediment. I should've known as I once dehydrated on the PCT and was almost shot by a bunch of 12-year old Girlscouts on my search for water. Back than I could barely form a coherent sentence either which is why they thought I was a drug addict or a madman or so.

I'm now in an overpriced shitty hotel in this little sad village. Lying in my bed again and feel very weak. I should try and get a soup or something.

Dunno what I should do tomorrow. I can't stay here, that's out of the Question! There isn't even a shop here, yet alone a pharmacy or a doctor! And the prices per room are grotesque in relation to what one gets. It's a sellers market tough as SO many new Pilgrims start in Le Puy that they can take whatever they want more or less...

So now I'm contemplating if I should try and walk tomorrow or if I should try and jump ahead a few days to something resembling a real town and wait until I'm fully good again. That's complicated tough as the piblic transport in France is really shit...

Update: So, turns out they have a Bus along many parts of the Via Podiensis! (Hahaha Busjoke Hahaha - I'm already dreading how this'll impact me in the Office! They have this long-running Joke there about how I just drive instead of walk my Trails and blablabla...). They even name it officially the "Compostel' Bus".

Means, tomorrow I'll first go to Sauges and there I'll go to the Pharmacie and maybe the Doctor. Depends if I feel better or not. And furthermore I'll be able to jump to wherever my schedule demands. This takes a huge weight off my shoulder as now I can just get better in peace and then continue normally.

You see, that's not always so clear on a long Trail like this! One isn't always able to catch a ride ahead and being off-schedule can bring a lot of problems. Like, on the PCT one couldn't just cross the Sierras whenever but had to wait for a relatively small window of 1.5 month in which there's no snow.

And also there's the subject of other People. When one's walking alone like me it's important to know People and being able to be around them. And having to let them go is quite hard sometimes. I still hope to catch up with Aleister or Lili or my new friends Corinne and Ritz from New Zealand. And that'd be impossible if I wouldn't jump ahead to where I'd be when I weren't sick...

Excited about tomorrow as Saugues is the main place where the attacks from the "Beast of Gevaudan" took place. If I feel good enough I totally want to check the museum out. Found this story fascinating for years and was so happy when I found out the Camino would lead right trough it!

I wonder if the beast killed some Pilgrims too! Have to do some research into it...