Getting closer

Friday 28

I started the day early with a dip in the river at 7.30 and was on the road by 8.00. I had a long day ahead of me and wanted to arrive at my destination, a lake, in good time.

I made satisfactory progress along quiet roads, still following the river. I stopped in a village around 9 and bought a few supplies for lunch and a slice - more of a slab - of apple tart for breakfast, which I ate by the river in the morning calm. The sun hadn't yet reached this deep in the gorge and only a few people went about their morning business. Two young boys arrived, running, and played quietly on a nearby seesaw.

I left to get a coffee. I passed two cafes in the village but both were closed so I carried on to the next village. This village didn't have a cafe at all, nor did the next. I spent the morning hoping for, but not finding, an open cafe.

Just before 12, nearly three hours after my search had begun, I rolled into the town of Figeac and found a restaurant which would serve me a coffee by the river.

I stayed for a second coffee. I'd had an early start and made reasonable progress so I needn't hurry.

After Figeac, I carried on to the town of Maur where I'd planned to have lunch but I couldn't find a pleasant square to sit in so I headed out of town.

I found a spot with a small rock to sit on where a small river fed into a larger one. I unpacked my picnic then cooled off in the river. I climbed out of the river but the water had been so nice that I got back in again.

As I was sitting on the rock eating my lunch three boys turned up. Two were the same age, ten or eleven and one was younger. Maybe eight.

They had been fishing for freshwater crabs and were taking their catch back home to eat. They wondered where I'd come from when I told them, Madrid, it didn't really register with them. They knew it was in Spain but didn't have a sense of the distance. The boys identified more clearly with the 60 km I had cycled this morning and the 14 days I had been cycling for in total. They were astonished to the point of disbelief that I hadn't needed to change a tire. When I think about it, this comes as a surprise to me too.

After lunch the road rose steadily through thick woodland for close to an hour. As I was climbing the hill I noticed something familiar about the landscape. At the top, I passed a sign advertising produce from the Auvergne, the region where my Dad lives. I am two days' cycling away.

I ended the day with a swim in a lake, dinner on the hotel terrace and a hot bath.

BC

[edit: I changed the title of this post because I realised that the original title could have been read to mean this was the last post, which it isn't. I had meant "close" as in near, not "close" as in shut.]