Thursday 26th October 2023

Near Carzac to Souilliac

Woke up for our last day of walking and the rat tat tat on the window answered the question on the weather forecast. No use bitching it was only 22 Kms in the rain, once we were dropped off at the starting point.

Today’s walk spent a fair amount of time on the old railway- now bicycle track – that we trod late yesterday.

Started in a pretty town called Aillac which was again a village of medieval homes or themed homes set in a little dip in the valley. Getting on the track meant a bit of back tracking, but nothing like yesterday’s access point.

Started at the bridge which sat under the eye of an old watchtower and meandered along , often with a tree canopy arching over the track.

The rain was not as heavy as predicted, but steady enough to have you pretty wet within the first hour- a period in which we again saw nobody.

About an hour and a half in we came across a tunnel which was about 500 metres long. Unfortunately, the taggers had been through ( even left all of their spray cans in an alcove) and sprayed a lot of it. Engineers had also been through recently installing reinforcement hoops. Jane got good value out of the poncho she bought yesterday.

The track broke out into open ground with a view over the river and there was another mountain top chateau to view. A track too far for us to travel, instead we looked at an old barn in a restored farmhouse.

Despite the weather the flat track allowed us to make steady progress and reach the town of Roufillac where we actually started our walk on the first day in the Dordogne.

The bridge and river looked as lovely in the wet as it did the dry. None of the cafes or even the tourist office were open, with a 1030 pizza the only offering. We were hoping the tourist office was open to see if we could try a longer waterside route that would allow us to miss some parts described as dangerous after rain.

We pulled up the Maps.me App which had been our friend when lost and determined our own way forward, which included a detour to a pretty village called St Julien de Lampon . It had the whole package- pattiserie, deli and a cafe. There was also some helpful old ladies who confirmed our planned route was fine, albeit a bit longer in even more persistent rain.

Warmed up with a coffee, the pack now stacked with a bread stick, ham, cheese and a little pastry for lunch further down the track we were ready to go.

We took off – who wouldn’t be comfortable after settling on a route based on hand gestures and some broken English instructions from two old ladies.

Not far out of town a smart farmer had obviously realised there was more money in real estate than corn and had sold off a great tract of land for a very much in theme housing estate.

Little old ladies didn’t tell us about the 1.5 uphill bit, but , we were going forward and didn’t worry. Came to a beautiful old farm under reconstruction with a paddock full of horses- not destined to race the Arc de Triomphe Classic

Finally found a bit of downhill and headed back towards the river which seemed to be flowing even faster after all of the recent rain. We walked through some spooky mossy forests where you expected a Troglodyte to jump out at any moment. The only thing to emerge was a tiny mouse who walked right up to us – perhaps he smelt the cheese in the backpack.

It got to lunch time and we got that hungry we sat on a table and chair next to the river and road , in the rain, and had an impromptu picnic. Got some deserved weird looks from passing motorists.

The picnic ended up a moving feast as we were getting soaked. If only we had waited another 20 minutes and we would have run into a camping site with seats and a bit of shelter abutting a walnut farm where there were plenty of nuts for the picking.

We picked our way along between river and road before coming to a one lane bridge, right next to a magnificent , lived in chateau, which meant the ladies were right- we could cross the river and head for home.

The bridge crossing signalled we were closing in on home base and no level of saturation was going to stop us upping the pace into town for the last couple of kilometres.

We passed a big soccer/rugby park before wiggling our way through some back streets to end our odyssey at the front door of our hotel.

After a bit of a delay in registering, apparently due to a toilet seat malfunction, we flopped into our room.

Different room configuration this time and Jane was mightily amused at my 3-4 attempts to find the toilet No matter how many times I looked in the bathroom it was not there- after a lot of giggling she directed me to the tiny cupboard near the wardrobe.

After 22 kilometres we sat and reflected on another walking holiday full of ups and downs, misadventures, great food and plenty of laughter.

Finally dry and looking presentable we enjoyed a celebratory G snd T before another nice dinner including a mug of Capuccino from the Land of Lilliput.

Tomorrow is a ‘proper holiday’ with a visit to La Cave – a reconstructed Prehistotic cave system. The boots and walking parephenalia will have to sit around and dry before we pack them away at the bottom of the suitcase.