July 17, 2008

Day 22: 5 May- Cahors to Domaine des Mathieux

Today was a very short day... only 5.5km. But it was also a day that I met two people who I ended up walking into Santiago with...

The reason for the short day was simple.... I couldn't get a booking in Lascabanes and I didn't want to walk 30+km to Montcuq. Apparently there is quite often a bit of a 'bottleneck' getting accommodation out of Cahors. (It is a common 'starting place', and most of those 'starting', rather than already on the trail, will have booked their first night out from Cahors before leaving home...)

So I had some time to explore Cahors in the morning, and use the Post Office etc. Being a Monday morning though, most places were closed... and then the rain began.

I had taken photos of the bridge from the lookout above Cahors two years ago, in brilliant sunshine. Today I was just lucky there was enough of a break in the rain to see the bridge!
I enjoyed the walk from Cahors, a trip down memory lane, and I still seemed to remember so many of the turnings along the road... The climb up the cliff was shorter than I remembered, though trickier this time with a full pack on. I was soon back at the Cross de Magne. There were red poppies in the fields again, but this time instead of being open in the sunshine, they were closed in the rain.

I arrived before lunch at Domaine des Mathieux, and was warmly greeted by a kind hospitalera. The rain began pelting down so I didn't mind not walking any further this day....

There was a sign saying it was 350km from Le Puy - a good reason for a small celebration in my heart. The sleeping rooms all had 'names' so I chose to sleep in 'Le Puy en Velay', a fitting room name to mark this achievement.And it wasn't just humans who found the rain hard going on this day....

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