Crisis of Conscience

Gay dropped me off in Quillan this morning for my walk up the mountain and home. Above the ridge on which Puivert castle stands, she saw a vulture casting his eye over the terrain. I managed to evade him and arrive home safely, but I don't know how the kitten got on. That's the tiny kitten, barely out of rompers and walking, who was out alone on the track, far from any habitation. I don't reckon hir chances of survival - foxes, pine martens, buzzards, kites, eagles, two kinds of vultures, and who knows what else? It scampered, or barely crawled, off into the undergrowth before I was tempted to have a crisis of conscience.

I walked 110 kms this week. Omitted to mention that I did 123 last week and have now completed 2171 for the year so far. Don't know how many I will manage this week as we have young Septimus Willem, my brother, and his wife Pat, coming on Tuesday for a week. They want to do some walking, but we also need to socialise and "hang out", so I expect, and don't mind, that the kilometrage will be down a little.

I hope to start the week off with a bang on the walk from Mirepoix to Puivert (33 kms) so anything else will be a bonus.

This has been a tremendous week on my blog and on the various forums and websites which carry the happy news of VBW. In the past 24 hours alone, at least 500 people have read my stuff.

I expect to post the details of the third and final stage of my walk through France tomorrow. I have already worked it out but need to tidy it up for presentation.