1/4 the way

 

Day 20 - Montcut

    We had a horrible night in the heat.  The enclosed loft room with no ventilation was a furnace.  Fortunately, there was a hammock and lounge chair outside that we escaped to for most of the night.  We left for our 12 mile hike very early, to be done by noon.  In my haste to leave, I left my trekking poles at the gite - the first forgetful casualty of the trip.  Not even my Bulthuis mental item checklist caught it. By the time we discovered it, we were hours from the gite, and we weren’t about to walk back and get them.  So we are down to one pair which should be okay as we don’t us them much and most of our treacherous walk is behind us.

     Speaking of behind us, one fourth of our entire trip is behind us.  We are half way through the French portion, and a little behind our anticipated timing.  But we have had two big factors which have slowed us down, the terrain and the heat.  We have already noticed a significant easing of elevation variety and we only have one more day of intense heat.

     We were able to make our destination shortly after noon.  Montcuq is yet another ancient town with an impressive 12th century tower. We were fortunate to be able to check in to our hotel room early.  By mid-afternoon it was 103 degrees.  We went to a grocery store and opened freezer doors pretending to look at frozen goods.  - desperate times call for desperate measures!  Just one more day of this crazy heat! 

     We ate dinner at the hotel restaurant - burgers with local cheese.   Then we walked back up to the old city and enjoyed a little coolness.  Tonight should be better with lots of ventilation and a fan. 

     On a side note, my face plant looks gnarly, but it’s healing.