10.05.14 Sunday. St Cheilly d Aubrac to Espalion.
A night warm enough but with rain in the small hours sees us up and fighting fit except for Betsy complaining of a poor nights sleep due to Tims snoring. No one else heard anything but the stream and the rain. Yesyerday we crossed the departement boundary into Aveyron and the watershed in to the Lot valley, today after a lot of descent we croosef the Lot at St Clome d Olt a town with a twisted spire to its church and both Tony and Tim independently were pleased to note its membership of the society of bent spires of Europe! This does exist and we have seen some before, many of them were deliberately made with green wood to produce the imperfection that was felt more appropriate at the time for a tribute to their God.
We find a bar open on a Sunday opposite the fountain just off the route through town it is full of walkers two young dogs playing and quite a quantity of flies, a bit worrying at this time of year. But the town is quite pictureque with a lot of old narrow streets. After crossing the Lot and leaving the Sunday quiet streets behind we part company and Tony Ray and Geof haul themselves up a route via a Virgin on a hill and add a gratuitous 400m up and down a very muddy motor cycle cross route. Betsy and Tim amble by road into into Espalion finding the first sicnificant roaf kill for Betsy’ s cauldron. On arrival the bad news is the campsite opens tomorrow! The Gite d etape communale has beds and so we have an expensive night at 20e inc petit dejuner, it’s not even cold as an excuse.
We discover that the town claims ss it’s famous son a Luitenant Denayrouze who invented the first independent diving machine which was trialled in 1864 in the River Lot.
A meal in a pizzaria is excellent but the kitty yet again needs feeding.