This post was written on May 18th, but only posted on May 18th due to connectivity issues
I left Cajarc in the early morning mist. It was one of those mists that is not exactly rain but just has water condensing on almost everything: hair, clothes, rucksack, and so on. But it was not actually raining, so I left off the raingear and accepted the level of damp that was there.
The trail heads along the riverbank for a while before ascending to the main road. It only stays on the main road for about 100metres, passing the wayside church of Notre Dame de la Paix, and then turning off onto a side road. The River Lot is as crooked as a corkscrew in this section, and the trail was now going into something like a peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the river. The trail stays with the road to cross the river towards Gaillac.
From the river, the map shows the trail just going around the corner to the village, but for some reason the trail has been diverted. It went north instead of south, entering Gaillac from a different direction and adding close to a kilometer to my route. With 30km planned for the day, I had considered taking a few short cuts, but this forced addition to my route moved that from a consideration to a certainty.
From Gaillac, the route zig-zags upwards, steeply at first, and then flattening to a very gentle rise. It goes through the forest on a stony path.
Last year when walking to Le Puy, I remarked on occasion how people leave stones with something written on them to give future walkers their thoughts. I have come across a few such cases on this walk as well, and there was one today. It was a message from two people (Alice and Sam, whoever and wherever they are) to tell us that we find the extraordinary among the ordinary. To Alice and Sam, I can only say that I fully agree.
The mist stayed in place more or less all morning, and even when the route went back onto a road, everything seemed dismally grey. But as Alice and Sam said, one finds the extraordinary among such ordinariness, and the mist showed up the cobwebs on the bushes in a way that they would never appear otherwise.
And so I came to the rest spot of St. Jean de Laure. It is hard to miss this place with its massive mobile arrangement of painted scallop shells. With memories of yesterday and the long walk with no refreshments of any kind, I was happy to stop for coffee.
Shortly after that, I came to the first of my short cuts for the day. At the village, instead of taking the official track, I took the direct road to Mas de Bories. It was faster and saved me probably close to one kilometer. Mas de Bories is a tiny village, that on a sunny day probably looks delightful, but in the grey mists of today I did not hang around.
I went through a few more tiny villages before coming to Limasogne-en-Quercy. It is more a big village than a proper town, but it did have a brasserie serving lunches. After steak and chips and a beer, I was ready to go again.
There is not a lot of interest after Limasogne, but I did take a short detour to see the Dolmen de Jonca. Apparently there are some 13 dolmens in the Limasogne area, showing that this region shares some of its origins with Ireland.
The dolmen is not especially impressive, definitely not as visually striking as Poulnabrone back in Ireland, but the very fact of its existence along with the others in the area is what is of interest.
Some six kilometers after LImasogne I came to Variere. The trail just skirts the edge of the village, and I did not stop. Then it was back into the forest and another five kilometers to reach Bach. I am staying at a gite run by an Anglo-French couple. They made the Camino journey some years ago and decided to open a gite somewhere on the route. And they run it very well.
Altogether some 30km walked and 48650 steps today.
Walkingman 