Day 16 September 11 Cajarc

16.2 km 405 ascent 259 descent 3:56 hr. 27⁰ C

We both had a good sleep last night again, although it was a bit hot. The only windows were a kitchen window that opened onto the cliff behind (where I had visions of a mountain lion coming in to the room), or the patio door to outside. We went to breakfast 10 minutes early again, which worked. Nice breakfast. Really nice hotel again. There were a lot of people staying there, and there was no sign of any of them at breakfast yet. Hey, it’s Sunday.

As we exited the town, we ran into the lady from yesterday (who didn’t have boots on), with another lady this time. They were confused on where the GR65 went. I found that rather surprising, since it was very clearly marked. I guess they just didn’t believe they were to start climbing up the escarpment. It was rather like scaling 100 meters up a vertical rock wall. 

Anyway, they followed us up, and the route continued to be very well marked.

We crossed over the river Lot again today. At this point it was a raging river, with three branches converging under the bridge, one of which was a rapids. 

After crossing the river, we climbed up to what appears to have been the old part of Cajarc. This was the beginning of about a 200 meter climb. It was still very cool, and we were walking along a path through the woods. Part way along we were passed by a pilgrim named Charles from New Zealand we have seen often along the way. He was the one admiring a motorcycle outside a bar in Livinhac, and Guy’s companion said ‘no, don’t even think about it’. He said motorcycles were a passion of his. He really flew by us. Very tall and lean fellow. We saw him downtown in Cajarc yesterday, too.

I’m pretty sure getting from Saint-Jean-de-Laur to Bories we walked three sides of a box. Well, better than walking on the road (even though there is no traffic on that road).

We only had a short distance to walk today, and got here at 11:30am. We are staying at a sort of Gite 2.5km before the town of Limogne-en-Quercy. There are no services here.

When we were almost here, we met up with 5 pilgrims from France, who we have met before, that were ‘lost’. They said they had gone 1km up the road, and not found the GR65.

The way seemed pretty well marked again. I consulted my map and said, you go a short distance up this road, and then turn right. They were skeptical. Russell confirmed that was what the GPS showed too. They followed us. It really was well marked. We found a sign for our Gite that was straight on, and a marking for the GR65 where it turned right. I also ran into the very same man from France I had run into yesterday coming out of Grealou, and we recognized each other and said hi. He confirmed where the GR65 was, and I told him I was impressed he was out for another hike today.

We told the other pilgrims we were resting here but that was where the GR65 went. They thanked us profusely, and we parted ways. What is going on today with these pilgrims not being able to follow the markings?

I was really hoping it wasn’t going be one of these closed until 3:30pm places. It wasn’t. We came in, our room was ready. I asked for a Perrier, which he didn’t have. He asked if gaseous water was okay, and I said yes.

He has a sodastream machine, which was built by Israelis on Palestinian occupied land. Sodastream was boycotted (including by the UCC) and shut down in Oct 2015 because its factory was located in the West Bank. 500 Palestinians lost their jobs. His bottle says 4/2015. We mentioned some of this this to him, but he didn’t seem to understand the Palestinian issue, or perhaps language was a barrier. At any rate, it was cool, carbonated tap water (ie, not cold). Not really what I had in mind.  We sat outside for a while and had the lunch we had carried from Cajarc. There were a lot of flies and wasps, and he had a cat (beautiful sort of Siamese thing) that was hanging around, doing a lot of scratching (hopefully it didn’t have fleas) and being a bit of a nuisance. It tried jumping up on Russell a couple of times. I had carried my surface and started working on the blog, while Russell settled into a lawn chaise lounge for a snooze. The bugs were annoying so we came into the room. We both ended up falling asleep for 2 hours. The bags still weren’t here when we woke up. They didn’t show up until around 4pm. We must be getting near the end of the run. Still, it’s a bit of a drag. You really want to have a shower and change when you finish walking. I have a bit of a very nasty rash from the heat and sweat which I am trying to keep under control with Aloe Vera gel, instead of cortisone cream.

Dinner was very nice. We had cantaloupe and homemade pate to start, mashed potatoes, duck sausages, and home grown vegetables, followed by chocolate brownie, homemade saffron syrup, and ice cream for dessert. We went outside to finish our wine, which was a very bad idea. The wine became absolutely full of black flies. Yeck. So much for that!

So, even though this place was out-of-the–way, it was very nice, and very relaxing. I think 33 km is pretty close to, if not the maximum we have ever walked, so it was nice to have a day to sleep and relax after that.

Tomorrow it is supposed to be 34 degrees and we have 25 km to walk. It is supposed to cool off soon. We can only hope!