Crash and Burn

 

Day 18

     Well, I bit the dust!  In the twilight of the early morning trail I stumbled on a rock and went headlong into the rocky path. Since I had my thumbs in the backpack chest strap I had no cushion but my knees. My face got the worst of it.  Fortunately, they are just surface wounds, and after slowly picking myself off the ground and brushing off,  I was ‘ultreia’ - ‘ let’s keep going’. I used my trekking poles for most of the rest of the day. Esther and I don’t like using the poles unless it is a steep downhill.  We may change our ways!

     Today’s journey was long and very hot (96 degrees by 2pm). In the 16 miles that we walked, there was only one water source.  Fortunately, we always carry 4 liters of water and our warm water carried us through. The landscape reminds us of the southern Texas hill country around Austin.  There are small hills covered in scrub oak, with lots of limestone rocks.

     Our destination today was Cabors, considered the half way point of the Via Podiensis, the French section of our route.  Technically, we have a couple days before we’ve gone 1/4 of the way of our entire Camino.  Cabors is very, very old city, established by the Romans and a few structures still remain.  It was an important trade city during the Middle Ages.  It is surrounded on three sides by the meandering River Lot.

   We are staying in an apartment in the old city. We found it through booking.com.  It advertised air conditioning, but it is just a small indoor unit that hardly does the job,  but anything is better than nothing, and we’re enjoying our privacy for the night.