Today I was woken by a loud crash and bang at 5.30. Not a storm but an early riser dropping a glass.

We sauntered across the road for breakfast at 7.30 a large dark cloud on the horizon. Our hosts did not speak English but we managed to converse about the weather, populations, farming, football and rugby.

As we returned to the gite to get our bsgs a few drops of rain appeared, peppering the road with dark spots.

We doned our boots took a step outside and returned to cover our packs and put on our capes. What a godsend they are and I nearly refused to bring one.

As we finally departed thunder began to rattle around us. The road started to lead us towards the darkest clouds, then it would turn to fool us into a false sense of security, before turning again to the approaching storm. The lightening flashed and the thunder rattled around us, but luckily the rain stayed away and we only had a slight sprinkling. Then at 11.00 there was a tremendous crack of thunder and the storm was over.

Getting hot in our capes we stopped part way up a hill, took them off and packed them away. As we put our rucksacks back on the rain appeared yet again. Causing us to unpack them again.

The rest of the day went by without any more hicups. Arriving at our gite we found we have a house to ourselves. The owners live next door and no one else has booked in.