Day 20 September 15 Cahors to Montcuq

35.5 km 823 ascent 796 descent 8:50 hr. 22⁰C

I got up this morning and things were wet but it wasn’t raining. We got to breakfast at 7am and talked to Jim. He was talking about the option of instead of climbing up the stairs, walking along the road, but that latter option meant you missed the cross at the top of the steep ascent.

I was leaving my options open until I got to the stairs. We left at 7:30am just as it was getting light. Wouldn’t want to do any of that in the dark!

We stopped at the boulanger and got the main course for lunch, and carried on across the bridge. I spent about 2 seconds thinking about it at the bottom of the stairs. 

A nice quick vertical ascent up or a long laborious climb up a 30 degree incline, adding 1 km to an already 34km day.

The guide said there was a handrail, but I soon figured out that clinging to the rock wall was their idea of a handrail. 

The whole thing was over in 7 minutes. I spent a lot more time than that worrying about it. As promised it was a magnificent view of Cahors leaving, and also an opportunity to get a good picture of how we descended into the city.  

Jim caught up with us along the Way after climbing the stairs but before the massive ascent was finished. 

We walked with him until Les Mathieux. He’s faster than we are although we were keeping up, huffing and puffing most of the way (at least me). At Les Mathieux we met Nathalie, sitting having a (second?) breakfast at a Gite there. We all stopped and had coffee and talked about the Camino with the Gite owner, who had walked it 20 years ago. I told Jim the name of our hotel for tonight. He couldn’t remember the name of his, but was also going to Montcuq.

Russ and I left and Jim said he wanted to walk with Natalie for a bit and would catch up to us later. Natalie was only going to Trigodino today, a total of 14km. We won’t see her again, she will be behind us, and is only walking to Moissac ((3 days for us, 4 days for her).

There were a lot of ups and downs, as evident from the stats. Jim caught up to us before Labastide-Marnhac, and we walked with him for a bit but then I told him I’d had enough of trying to keep up with him, and he went on ahead.

There was a school out for a field trip at Labastide-Marnhac, with a ton of children (some holding a rope) out on the road where the GR65 went. Russ and I stopped at picnic table in the city and shared a grapefruit. Natalie passed us. We say her again at a public WC, and I said, ‘where did you go?’ She only had 4km left for the day and said she was just wandering around. We said good-bye. Hugs, and kisses. Another Camino friend gone.

At around our km 15 we saw a ring necked pheasant in the field. He was very handsome and Russell took a bunch of pictures of him. 

I went on ahead and later turned around to see where Russell was, and noticed that Phil, the pheasant, was following Russell. It was the cutest thing, the pheasant was walking along behind Russell as fast as his legs seemed able to carry him. I told Russell to give me the camera so I could get a picture of this. Which I did.

The pheasant then passed Russell and came up to me. He did a lot of talking when he caught up to me, and I wondered what he was trying to communicate. At first I thought maybe he was providing a decoy to protect his nest, but he just kept following me after that.

It was after noon at this point, and we were on the look-out for a picnic table. The next place on the map was at km21 and that could take us another hour and a half. Thankfully, there was a great picnic site around km 18, where we stopped. I was wondering if Phil would be a nuisance, but he went off into the bush when we stopped.

We had our lunch and met some girl pilgrims from Dublin. They were doing the Camino in two to three stretches, having started at Le Puy last year and finished up 4km past Cahors. This was their first day today, starting off from where they left off. They were going to Lascabanes, a total of 18km for them.

Lo and behold, after lunch, Phil came out of the bush and continued to follow me. I wondered if he had fallen in love with my red and orange socks. He was so cute!! He ended up following us to Baffalie, at our km 21. That was a total of 6km plus lunch, for a period of 2 hours. He gave up when we hit a massive descent to a number of farms. Probably a dangerous place for a handsome pheasant. I kept looking back for him, but he was gone.

We passed Jim sitting on a bench in Lascabanes, changing his socks. He said he was going to our hotel, as well.

We kept expecting him to catch up to us, which he never did. I was wondering if he had dreamt up a shortcut to get here. There was another massive climb, equivalent to the climb out of Cahors after Lascabanes, pretty much in the full sun. Once in the sun, I started to see my blue butterlies, in pairs as usual. When they close up their wings, they’re grey, so they’re some kind of moth.

After 34+ km we limped into Montcuq, with another km to go to get to our hotel. When we got here we had to call to get into our room, the place was closed until 6pm. We got here around 4:15pm and Jim arrived around 5:30pm. He said he had just run out of steam. It was a long walk.

Thank the Lord, it was nice and cool today. The rain did manage to cool things off. But according to the lady in the Tourist Office in Montcuq, it is going to warm up again over the next few days.

We had supper with Jim. We had duck, rice, and peas, a varied salad to start, and a nice dessert. We were all pretty tired, and came up to bed. Russ and I have 26km tomorrow, while Jim has 14. We have 12 the day after, and he has 24. We will see him again I’m sure over the next few days. We are all in Moissac on Friday.