Camino Photo of the Day: a Wrong Turn and a Lesson

This was the exact moment I suspected I was lost. I was walking a gentle forest path, and I had been lost in contemplation. When I came upon this structure, I briefly paused as I didn’t remember it being mentioned in my guidebook. Just a dozen meters or so beyond, I came to a fork in the road and could not find any trail marker indicating which direction to go. Then it slowly began to dawn on me that I hadn’t actually seen a trail marker since I left the road, probably 2 km or more back.

So I did the only thing I could do; I turned around and walked back to try to find a trail marker. It was not in serene contemplation that I now walked, but barely restrained panic. By the time I found a marker, I had basically added 5+ km to my day, losing an hour and any advantage that I might have had by leaving early.

There’s a lesson in there somewhere. Perhaps it is: don’t get so lost in your contemplation that you don’t see the signs, and never be afraid to go back to where you made a wrong turn. Even if that is a long way, indeed.

Date: 02 September 2023
Place: between Rocamadour and Labastide-Murat, Lot Département, Region of Occitanie, France

Maps!

The site I’ve been using for my daily maps, Gronze.com, while otherwise great, unfortunately doesn’t have maps for this variant. So here’s a map from my book Practical Pilgrimage showing the entirety of the three main variants and larger sub-variants. I walked the GR6 from Figeac to Rocamadour and the GR46 on to Cahors.