I'll Look Back At This and Laugh

Maybe it was because I felt guilty for taking the Very Fast Donkey from Chatelleraut to Poitiers but although I walked over seven hours today I don't think I ever made it out of Poitiers. 

Finding the walking route out of cities is always hard and even more so when it's raining. I have one guide book and one smart phone to help me navigate and neither are waterproof. It was pouring in Poitiers when I left but I vaguely remembered some of the landmarks to look for on my way out of town; I couldn't find any of them. 

I went to the Tourist Office where the nice lady drew a path on a map, but being from a city that's laid out as a grid, as soon as I left the TO, everything seemed kittywampus. I tried a couple of logical seeming routes but none lead to anything that gave me confidence I was on the right trail. 

Finally, an hour and a half after I left the hotel I saw a couple of cyclists go down a road that seemed to run south. I followed them across a bridge and saw what I thought I was looking for; a waymark painted on a telephone pole. It pointed me to a wooded path. It had to be the right way to go. The waymark was a little different than the ones before Poitiers. It seemed to be a yellow stripe over a red one instead of the usual white over red. After a couple of hours I came to a big chain linked gate with a sign that said "closed weekdays" but since it was a Saturday the gate was open and I was free to proceed. It was, of course a construction site for the new high speed train line from Tours to Bordeaux. A km later I exited the site and came upon a paved road with a sign pointing to a village. It was still pouring with rain but there was a partially sheltered bus stop so I took the opportunity to check out my guide book. The only village with that name was about ten km north - back towards Chatelleraut!  In need of a second opinion I took out the phone and consulted Google Maps. It confirmed that I was indeed headed in the wrong direction. Since it was after 1PM I decided to cut my losses and retreat back to Poitiers. I finally made it back to town at around 4PM and got a room at the Ibis Budget hotel next to the train station.  I'd stopped into the station to see if I could catch a train to a friendlier walking environment and learned that from Poitiers I could go anywhere I wanted. My non store bought walking stick was saturated with rain so I left it at the entrance to the station and proceeded to the hotel. 

After a good nights sleep I decided to try walking out of there again, this time using Google Maps to direct me to the first little village that would have the proper way marking. My stick was still where I left it and had dried out from the night before. 

The walk to Lusignan was un-eventful and I did learn a couple of valuable lessons:  Google Maps is a savior, and a yellow over red waymark means its a local, circular route.