Nicks blog

Miles today 50.3
Total miles 195

We both woke early (5:30) & decided to get going before the rain arrived. So in the dark we got packed up & took all our stuff to the shower blocks covered area to avoid the rain. Sarah opened the door of the child change area to find some random bloke asleep on the changing mat. He said hello and proceeded to smoke strange fags for an hour ! We let him get on with his strange morning habit and went for some breakfast.
We were on the road for 9 after remembering reception had my driving licence so we couldn’t leave till they opened- doh….

Another day of wonderful French countryside on traffic free cycle paths. The journey was broken in two halves by a half hour ferry ride from Arcachon to Cap Ferret. We nearly missed the 11am ferry but the lovely French people held the ferry for us and helped load our bikes !

Found another great camp site and had a fine meal of lentils with duck all washed down with cider. The missing green lighter has now been found – Sarah must have put it in my bag !

The rains come again so we’re now sitting in the laundry room charging phones and keeping dry

 

 

Ferry over the river…

 

Duck in lentils….

 

Largest Dunes in Europe…

Miles today 47

Total milage 144.7

Today we were woken early by rain & high winds. This did not encourage an early start, nor did the lack of hot coffee for Sarah ! This was because the new stove had been left out in the rain and would now only produce flames from the wrong holes! Sarah not happy.

The clouds cleared about 11:30 so we packed and were on the road by 12. Again we were treated to miles of traffic free road through beautiful forests. We stopped for another lunch of French cheese by a beautiful river. More hills today but we made good time covering 47 miles by 6pm.

Again a lovely camp site that is virtually empty. We threw the tent up and got the stove out for a cuppa. But guess which girl had left the lighter at the last campsite? Doh… So we then got back on the bikes & headed for the shops. So with new lighter and a now dry stove we had tea & a fine tinned paella (Dave & Lynn’s suggestion) Rain again tomorrow so must remember not to leave my cycling shoes outside again…

 

Rain  🙁

 

Our camp…

 

 

 

Milage today 56.7 miles

Total mileage 97.7

We woke to bright sunshine packed the tent and were on the road by 8:45. Today was a day of cycling through beautiful forests on traffic free cycle paths.

We had a 6 mile detour to get a new stove. It’s not ideal but was all we could find in a French supermarket.

Back on the route we had more woodland before the forest cleared at the beach and we came to a 5* campsite. We had a nice swim before our first hot meal of the holiday !

Beautiful traffic free cycle ways….

 

Swimming…

 

 

Hot food 🙂

 

 

Miles today 35.9

Total miles 41.5

So after our early morning dash from the caravan site we shouldn’t have camped in things got better after breakfast. The sun came out and we started to get some miles in. The French do cycle lanes well – not just a little bit of white paint down the side of a road but proper segregated cycle lanes. Cycling felt safe ? I won’t bore you with descriptions of the places we cycled through but just say they were pretty.

My only worry is that my dynamo hub isn’t working so I’m going to have to rely on plugging in at camp sites. I shall tinker with the wiring later – the amount of rain last night won’t have hepled it.

About 4pm we found a nice camp site near Ondres. The sun was shining so we got wet tent up & started to wash and dry stuff. Chores done we sat down to cook – pasta bolognaise. But we didn’t cook anything because some twat had forgotten part of the stove. Needless to say Sarah wasn’t impressed with cold pasta bolognaise from a can. I think I won her round with the pudding of mini Swiss rolls though ? The Internet services a wonderful thing & I’ve found a Decathlon on route so a new stove will be purchased tomorrow – or I’m a dead man walking…

Rough sea from last nights storm…

 

House boat…

 

Harbour – can’t remember where…

 

 

 

 

 

A long day on trains and a missed connection saw us arrive at Hendaye about 11pm in the pouring rain.

We tried to find a hotel while having a quality meal from the train station vending machine. While in mid Trivago we were moved on by the police – they probably wanted to close the station. Their helpful hotel suggestions came to nothing so we struck out to find a camp site. After 5-6 miles of cycling we were losing patience so found a caravan park & pitched in a spare space …all by torch light in the rain.

After a poor nights sleep we got up early and started our journey.

Stopped at the first village for breakfast at a cafe.

A day on the trains…

 

A wet Sarah…

 

Breakfast after a cold wet night…

On boarding we noticed the pool was empty and covered. This was a clue to a expected rough crossing. It was and I spent most of the twenty hours crossing in my bunk with my eyes closed.

I have to say its been a very civilized way of getting to Europe when compared to the hassle of flying.

Next stage is trains to the border – this will test my limited Spanish ?

After a quick visit to Sarah’s 101 year old aunt we drove to Plymouth. The roads were busy & frequent heavy showers slowed progress – a long drive.

At Plymouth I phoned the storage company who were looking after the car & was told we’d be met by Olys sister & the car would be stored at a satellite depot.   This turned out to be a luxury gated mansion on the cliff tops ! The photo shows the view over Plymouth sound the car has for three weeks !

The off to find our AirB&B for the night after a quick pint in Spoons