Last night all 5 of us were together again, but this might be the last time. I for one do not want to do another 30km day so Jo and I have decided to only go 20km and then stop. Well maybe a little further and at least get to the gite.

So sisters Jenny and Lynda will be ahead of us again, and will most likely stay that way as we both suffer when trying catch up. Sister Susan is considering going off to see a bit more of France. So unless we all meet up after the walk has finished this might truly be the last time we were together in France.

As for the walk today the majority of it was seeing where wine comes from with vines in perfect straight lines growing as far as the eye can see.

Today Jo was a down hill gal for an uphill day. Yes again an undulating day with ups and downs all over the place.

Yesterday’s surprise of seeing a yabbie on the path is now a common sight with them crawling around the rocks in the streams. In one place it looked like a walker hsd stopped for a feast, but it was more likely to have been an otter. The remains scattered around the banks. There was even road kill of yabbies. I’m not sure why they wanted to cross the road, perhaps the chicken can tell us.

After last nights storms today is again bright and inviting us to walk on.

However we soon find that today is nit going to be like our previous days if walking. For our friend of the shaded track has turned against us and the demon of the hot tar road is now our friend. For the rain of last night has mixed with the clay of the tracks to form a tacky, slippery goo that sticks to our shoes transporting us back to the 60’s by creating planform boots for us.

The shadows also harbour an unseen horror waiting to attack. While stopped debating whether to continue on or to retreat to find another route we are atracked by millions of moquitoes.

The demons of yesterday dry the mud on our boots and deter to mossies and provide us some salvage from our new demons.

Today is a rest day. We started off, after breakfast, going to church to listen to the nuns sing or were they chanting. Not sure really as I didn’t understand a word they said, but the accaustics were great and it was quite a moving service.

After that we strolled along the canal and across the viaduct, this is where it crosses over the river. Just as we were abiut to descend we saw a deer in full flight trying to jump s security fence. Not being able to clear it, the deer then proceeded to ram it until it finally gave way.

Yet another great gite last night and thankfully it was only half way up yhe hill.

Today being Sunday most shops are closed, so we ordered 1 picnic lunch for just in case. This little treasure box included, tomatoes+salt, 1/2 baguette + 2 soft cheese portions, a sandwich, a banana and a kiwi fruit, plus a knife, fork and spoon set.

The walk again today was hot roads and some shaded wood walks. The fields to start off with were of wheat or sunflowers. But the terrain is more valley like with a few ups and downs and there are more orchards.

We have walked past orchards of apples, plums and peaches, vineyards, wallnuts and even an orchard of kiwifruit and pomegranate .

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What a gastronomic delight last night’s meal was. Each gite seems to be trying to out do the previous one.

Breakfast however appears to be the same, bread butter, jam and coffee.

Today will be a change of route, instead of following the red and white markers of the Chemin du Puy we are going to be walking an orange route to by pass Cahor, but first of all we have to find it.

We walk the 3km on the road to the next town, armed with a map and instructions (in French) to pick up the route.

The first instruction I roughly translate as ‘Facing La Poste take the road on the left’. Quite straight forward, not. Jo pipes up, “That depends on where you stand”.

Well I suppose that is true, but I am standing facing the main entrance with a large sign showing ‘La Posta’ so I must be right and everyone else can…..

We get on the correct path and soon get the k’s ticking over. Again today is a mix of narrow paths and wider tracks along with roads. Again not much of a view only trees and a few fields of cut hay.

The extra walk yestetday was well worth the effort as we had a lovely gite to stay at and very friendly hosts.

The walks are getting flatter now and only glimpses of tree tops from the road. There is no horizon to view, therefore no targets to see or set ourselves.

It is hot again today, luckily there is quite a bit of covered tracks and I at least was glad to arrive at our gite, even if we were 2 hours early. We have a room privi, which is worthy of a 4 * hotel.