Haha… Damn phone?! Last night I lay in bed writing yesterday’s blog, I’d almost finished it before I fell asleep, today it has gone, alas, I will try to remember what went on…
Once again I had shared a room with a loud sleeping French man. Luckily for me, before my folks had departed my dear old ma had given me earplugs… Now they weren’t 100% noise reducing but if I slept on one side and held the duvet as tightly as possible over my exposed ear, the snoring was reduced to about 10%, which was bearable…
I woke later than usual, and despite not wanting to get up, I did, by just gone eight I was out the door and ready to take on the very overcast day. By half past I’d worked out how to get out of Cajarc and I also had four French pilgrims following me. (Probably because they couldn’t find their way out of town either)?! As I marched on I could hear the others following close behind, as I stopped to photograph a landscape or the odd praying mantis, they would near, sometimes overtake for a moment, but when I was ready I passed them again. This happened all morning, through the odd light shower, until we reached Limogne-en-Quercy. I had been planning to stop here but it wasn’t even midday. The other pilgrims passed, one couple suggested staying where they were. It was only another 13km on, I’ve already done 20km…
I walk on, as I leave Limogne I see the road ahead is clear. The others must have stopped for lunch. In the next hour I decide the first gite I come across I’ll stay at, my feet ache and I’m still fairly tired.
Finally, about 8km on and one stray dog later I finally enter the village of Varaire.
The dog, it’s some kind of gun dog, a pointer. I first came across it about 4km back, he’d been walking towards me down a track. As I passed, he turned and followed. Now he walks beside me as if he is mine, he follows scents this way and that. He disappears into the undergrowth at which I say ‘au revoir’, but then he appears again?
Ok, so I arrive in Varaire, and amazingly I give the dog the slip, yes I feel somewhat guilty, but what else can I do. I walk up the steps to the gite, and call out. A lady beckons me in (I think), I ask for a bed and that’s it, I’m done.
I settle in to a room on my own, for now. Just after 3pm I wander over to the shop, I buy bread, chocolate spread and a coke. Back at the gite I relax with a green tea after washing my clothes. As I lie in bed, I write some emails, and begin to write this, but then I fall asleep.
I wake to some serious clatters of thunder, it’s late evening and the rains have come for a brief moment. I love watching lightning but I haven’t the energy to get up. The rains settle and I go back to sleep.