27th August. Espalion

Day 8  15.6 miles Total 101.3 miles

During the night strong winds woke me as they tore up the valley and buffeted the tent in waves.
I left St Chely at 1st light, but took the wrong path and wasted half an hour getting back on route.
After the initial steep climb out of the valley, I walked through woodland and took a break at a farm lean-to with hot drinks available. The young French lads came along whilst I was there (I'll refer to them as the lads from now) and I saw them on and off the rest of the day.
The Lot river valley was ahead, the area is very wooded with fields of cattle interspersed, beautiful. I saw my 1st vulture of the walk. It was a an undulating descent to the town of St Come d'Olt and the river Lot.
From here it was along the valley to Espalion. The route went away from the river but I stayed on the road, which I reckon was the original  route, until the outskirts of Espalion.
After booking into the campsite showering and setting up my tent, a woman who had passed me before the turn off arrived. She said it was a very hard stretch.
Espalion is lovely and touristy. The small shops lacked much choice in food for campers to cook, and I couldn't be bothered to walk out of town for the supermarket so made do with lentil salad, which Catherine the woman camping next to me brought back also.
The lads turned up and we spent the evening together. Catherine went to bed at 7pm, knackered.