Day 21 September 16 Montcuq to Dufort

28.9 km 658 ascent 635 descent 7:10 hr. 19⁰C

The alarm went off at 6:30am and I said let’s get up at 7. I didn’t sleep well last night because my feet were all swollen, hot and sore, and my legs were sore. I also had a headache, probably from the stress of worrying about the ascent out of Cahors yesterday. I gave in though at 6:45am because we had another long day ahead of us.

It was a totally minimal breakfast. Coffee, bread, and jam. I asked the fellow if he had any yogurt, and he said he only had soft cheese. I said that would be fine and he brought a rather large bowl of it, which Russell and I shared. It’s actually very good, much like greek yogurt, but I expect it has a million calories.

Jim was there at breakfast. He only has 14km today, so he said he was going to sightsee in Montcuq this morning and then sightsee in Lauzerte this afternoon. We established that we were both going to be in the same Hotel Luxembourg in Moissac on Saturday, so we will see him again tomorrow.

Along the Way today there was an incredible amount of climbing followed by steep descents. This happened 8 times getting to Lauzerte. It was torturous after yesterday. When we set out, we quickly caught up to 3 German pilgrims (not all walking together) that we had met at dinner yesterday at our hotel. They had come over to view our 3 different desserts (the sum total of the choices-lemon cake, pineapple cake, and crème caramel) and get our recommendations. We then passed two men pilgrims, that I thought were German, that were very chatty. Next we were passed by two older men and a young man. When we were in Conques, at the Cathedral, there was a wall display on a program for troubled youth, where they could get their sentences reduced or pardoned if they walked the Camino. They were always accompanied by two chaperones that were their spiritual advisors, available to them 24/7. I said to Russell, ‘I wonder if that is a troubled youth with his chaperones?’

Shortly after, we arrived at a church in Rouillac with Romanesque frescoes on the ceiling above the altar. Everyone went into to the church, and once outside the young fellow said in English ‘what a beautiful walk’. I said, ‘oh, you speak English.’ It turns out he is from Boston, and he is walking with 2 men he met along the way, one from Ireland and the other from France. However, I assumed at the time they were all from Boston. So much for my hypothesis! I was intrigued about a young man like him doing the Camino, and going into the church and seeming to be so moved by it. Russell and I left first and none of them caught up to us along the Way to Lauzerte, although the young man from Boston got close a few times. I wanted to talk to him, and ask why he was walking the Way. Perhaps he is going into the ministry? Or accompanying his father on the journey. There are many reasons why people walk the Way. He was very friendly and polite.

Probably the steepest climbs today were before and after Montlauzon. A name like that is rather synonymous with a cliff. Near the top of Montlauzon I was very happy to discover that we weren’t going to ascend to the very top. This was another example of the GR65 avoiding the town, and any grocery stores or bar/restaurants available there (which there were). For once I was on board with that!

At Pech-de-la Rode we ran into that infernal French fellow again. He is always going the opposite way to us. Does that make sense? He looked very clean and fresh, as always, and we made a mighty descent after meeting him, so he would have just completed a mighty climb. It’s a mystery. He always squeezes my arm as we pass, and he’s very handsome!

When we got to Lauzerte we could see the full glory of the 100 meter ascent to the medieval town.

Down below, there were cafes and a supermarket, and we stopped at the first café and got a drink, mainly to use the bathroom, which was becoming critical.

Within a short time, all of the other pilgrims arrived, and stopped there too. The trio from Boston were stopping for the night at Lauzerte. The two men pilgrims, as it turned out were from Austria, not Germany, and they were very pleased to hear we were from Canada. One of them kept saying ‘oh, you are from Canada’. He said he and his wife were going to travel to Canada next year.

I was really getting tired, with sore feet and the infernal headache which just didn’t seem to want to go away, and asked Russell if we couldn’t go around Lauzerte without climbing up. It was a rhetorical question, because I had already figured out from the map how to do it. He checked his GPS and said we could. I asked if he was okay with that, and yes he was. Russell is a real purist when it comes to walking every inch of the Camino, so this was welcome news.

We went to the supermarket and bought a salad for lunch, and I asked at the checkout if there was a picnic table close by. One of the cashiers was recruited to tell us where to go, but it was all in French and rather hard to follow. We headed off in the general direction she was pointing (with Russell objecting the whole time because it was in the opposite direction to where we were heading). We passed a restaurant with a bunch of tables and chairs outside that were very obviously not intended for clientele to eat at. I said let’s eat here. Russell didn’t want to because they obviously weren’t ‘public’ tables. I said, we can ask permission, or beg forgiveness. We were almost finished our lunch before anyone even noticed us, at which point someone came out and told us in French this was restaurant tables and we should finish our lunch and leave. That was our intention all along, so we agreed.

When we went round to the road D953 we were going to walk along instead of climbing into Lauzerte, we noticed there was a lovely bench in the middle of the roundabout we could have eaten our lunch at instead, and watched all the cars go whizzing by. Oh well!

We had to walk 2km along a bit of a busy highway to get to where the GR65 continued, but it was worth not climbing and descending 100 meters.

When we were back on the GR65 we noticed the Austrian pilgrims coming up behind, and wondered if they had done the same thing. Russell had told them how to bypass going up the hill.

The ups and downs continued. It was brutal. My feet were sore, my knees were giving out, and I had a headache. We went past a dovecote, a pigeon house, St-Sernin-du-Bosc (a lovely chapel), and were on our way to Mirabel, when we passed Celine. It turns out she has exactly the same boots as me, and this is her third pair – me too! She said she had lost all of her Quebecoise companions, then said ‘keep smiling’.

I was really hobbling along at this point. We were walking on the road (the tarmac kills my bursitis). I tried as much as possible to walk on the shoulder, but the ground was very uneven, which was almost worse. We didn’t really know how far we had to go. At Mirabel it started to rain, so out came the (hot) ponchos.
It was uphill for a good 2 km past Mirabel, and I was going really slowly. I thought Celine was going to catch up to us. She wasn’t too far behind.

Finally, we reached our logis for the night. It is out in the middle of nowhere, billed as offering a wonderful overnight stop in peace and calm of Quercy Blanc. It is called Hotel Aube Nouvelle. It looks ancient and run down from the outside, but is beautifully renovated and very spacious and nice inside. We had a really charming room. As we were sitting in the mud room taking off our boots and hanging up our ponchos to dry, Celine passed by. We all waved.

The dinner was excellent, Russell had escargot as a starter, I had a seasonal plate, and we both had pork tenderloin with spiced figs and vegetables, and apple bread pudding for dessert.

We are both very sore and tired and went to bed right after dinner. Thankfully it is a short walk tomorrow, but lots of ups and downs, as always!

The internet service here is very slow and iffy so we couldn’t post anything or access e-mail. There will be Phil the pheasant pictures posted, so do go back and view them (Day 20)!