Day Twelve

Last night, just after we went to bed, the mother of all thunderstorms arrived. There was a colossal amount of rain. I’m sure it wasn’t coming down in drops, just being poured from that huge bucket in the sky. It was like being in a carwash for a couple of hours, with added sound and light effects. In its own way, it was magnificent. We were glad not to be in a tent.

Today I walked from Souillac to Sarlat-le-Canada, famous for its lovely old buildings and for its huge and splendid markets.

I also walked, as you can see, from the ancient province of Quercy into the ditto of Perigord, from the current department of Lot into the same of Dordogne (I think Napoleon brought in the departments) and from the region of Midi-Pyrenees (in which I have been walking, except for the first few kms on the first day and an aberration on the second day, for the whole of VBW so far) into Acquitaine, of Eleanor fame.

Gay, having moved V-Force One on to Sarlat, walked out 6 kms or so to join me for the last bit of the walk. Where we met was in a forest – actually, almost all of today’s walk was deep in forest – where loggers had clearly been at work this morning, churning up the track –already sodden from last night’s rain - so that it turned into that sort of clay which keeps getting thicker and thicker on the bottom of the shoes and one keeps getting taller and taller. Gary Glitter clay, we call it, because it reminds us of his ridiculous shoes.

We had no sooner arrived at the campsite, had a shower and lunch, than the next thunderstorm arrived.

I walked 33.5 kms, 393 so far. I also climbed 1452 metres. All that talk of how many Ben Nevises I have climbed got me to thinking. I should have been keeping a proper record of this, and will go back over the routes with my trusty Satmap Active 10, but I have actually already climbed Everest on this trip, as well as walking nearly 400 kms.