Day 13 Hairpin bends without brakes

I left Segonzac this morning, intending today to be a fairly modest run, passing Brive to the south west and moving some way east as well as south; it still turned out at 100km. Via Larche, and then on to Souillac. The weather was OK at first - some sun, though threatening clouds. But at Souillac the heavens opened, and I climbed out of the town towards Martel in about 15 minutes of cloudburst. The road was flooded to at least 4 inches in places - no problem for a tractor, but I found that the front wheels pump water very efficiently straight onto the driver's feet. By Martel it was dry again, and then a scary sequence of hairpin bends as the road descended at 7% for about 2km. Engine braking worked fine, which is just as well, because my one remaining brake would never have stopped the tractor.

Crossed the Dordogne river into the Lot at about 3pm and found my hotel at Carennac http://www.france-for-visitors.com/dordogne/perigord-noir/carennac.html. The village is very much a tourist attraction, and it is easy to see why. I visited an excellent exhibition of local vernacular architecture in the Chapter house. At the hotel, I asked if I could put the tractor in their small car park, and this provoked a lot of interest by the proprietor and his staff. It turned out that he is a tractor enthusiast and we had another lengthy discussion on the merits of various tractors with the Ferguson heritage. I apologised about the oil dripping onto his forecourt from my leaky rear axle, and he confirmed that they all used to do that. He also said the brakes had never been any good, even on the newer ones. He insisted I parked the tractor in his own garage, next to his slightly later Massey Ferguson (photo). This turned out to be fortunate because that evening we had a huge storm. It started with 15 minutes of intense hail, with stones the size of marbles, and continued with another half hour of tropical downpour. The road in front of the hotel turned into a river, lifting tarmac, and washing away the gardens opposite. Unusual for June they said; it doesn't normally happen until August. I learned afterwards that damage included broken solar panel arrays.

As I'm now getting so close, I've spoken to Barbara and arranged to meet up at Sauliac sur Cele tomorrow afternoon, with a view to staying the night somewhere nearby.