Christmas in Teich

The next day we headed out onto the D3. Although it too is long, straight and windy you pass through towns every now and again, which broke up the monotony. The towns around the Arcachon basin are quite nice looking places and must be heaving in the summer. Got to our destination after about 8hrs cycling. We have a little self-catered apartment with a dishwasher and cooker and a toaster and everything! Cooked a Christmas dinner to be proud of and drank fizzy stuff. Kit maintenance and prep today heading out tomorrow morning. Merry Christmas!

La Rochelle to Hourtin Plage

Moving on we headed out of the city via the Velo Odyssee 1 cycle path, which took us to Fouras and a closed campsite. Continuing along the cycle path we skirted around Rochefort to Tonay Cha

La Rochelle

After leaving John and Ros we spent 2 days getting to La Rochelle and 2 nights in it. We mooched about the old town and the market, explored the marina and visited the aquarium which was awesome.

Last Night at Retrait Rosslyn and John

So with the wheel fixed we're leaving St. Germier! We've had a great time with John and Ross at our Workaway. We've stayed far longer than we planned and John and Rosslyn have been really accommodating. We've had a great experience here, learnt new skills, ate loadsa great food and just had good time enjoying John and Rosslyns' company. So before we leave, we've just got time to share the last of our photos from our stay here.

Building a 40 hole 4 cross wheel

After waiting for almost 4 weeks for a bike shop to rebuild our wheel I decided, in a fit of frustration, to do it myself.

A Not So Bright Idea

Before we left I had a great idea. Replace all the batteries, in anything that takes batteries, with rechargeables! Our bike-lights and torches were kitted out with rechargeable AA & AAA's so that we'd save a fortune on batteries.

A little further down the road...

It is NOT a good idea. Its bad enough that you have to hang round the toilets to charge your phone and stuff but rechargeable AA & AAA's take at least 6 hours to charge! Either you take a risk and leave it in the shower room overnight or you visit a hotel or something and recharge in your room. We've been doing the former whenever it seems safe but it is far more convenient to just buy some batteries!

Internet Access in France

Internet access is not an essential part of our travels, but it can be useful for sharing stories and pictures, locating bike mechanics, organising future activities and accomodation, researching solutions to various problems and finding a shop that opens on a Sunday!

Using the internet on our phones

The bits at the Start

As our departure was fairly rapid, we never got to post the pre ferry drama .
We finished work, packed the house and got ready for the trip in just over 2 weeks. It wouldn't have been possible without the help of our parents. Thanks mum and dad!(s) Also thanks to the guys at Onitsports for their help getting the bike ready and all their invaluable advice.
Thanks to Billy(the dog) for guarding our stuff.
It was probably the most difficult part of our adventure so far but it really shouldn't have been. It's just putting your stuff in bags!  We bought things we needed ,but didn't pack, on the road. We also threw a bunch of stuff away or sent it home.

In the words of  Tom Allen:
Worry only about leaving.
Leave soon.
Leave before you're ready.

 

Dad fits super-high-tech flag holding device to trailer.

 

 

Liz bedecked in Onitsport kit.

 

 

Billy the vicious guard dog.

 

 

 Stuff to take and stuff to leave behind.  

 

It's so clean!

 

Loadsa stuff!

We've added 6 posts or text to existing posts. Lots of pictures, lots of writing. Kinda up-to-date now. Will work on the rest of the site a bit more now!
Also we have (according to google stats) had over 1000 page views. Yay!

Workaway in Saint-Germier

We have a workaway.org placement in a place called Saint-Germier near St. Maxient-L'Ecole. We have been here about a month so far waiting for our wheel to be fixed and trying to sort out bits and pieces. Lots of pictures!

The Kindness of Strangers...

Eventually we got the bike sorted and replaced the rear tyre for a Schwalbe Marathon. We made our departure from La Breteche campsite and as we were the last customers of the year had our photo taken on the way out! This time

Ummmmm.. Intermarche carpark.

The day started with an epic hill, a proper lung cruncher. What felt like only a kilometre later we pulled in to an Intermarche carpark to stock up and heard another bang. Exploded tyre number two. Sunday morning in France, no chance of finding a replacement tyre. After removing all our bags and attempting a patch repair courtesy of a group of French cyclists, we decided that carrying on wasn't a sensible idea and so hatched a plan that Rob would cycle the unloaded tandem a kilometre back the way we had come to the campsite and then walk back so we could carry the luggage together. However, our master plan was thwarted by an exceptionally kind French family who insisted we had a coffee and loaded up their camper with our stuff and squeezed us in to take us to the campsite. Very, very grateful!

Puy du Fou

Super rainy cycle to Puy du Fou a historical theme park.

To Puy Du Fou

Nantes to Clisson
We navigated our way onto Nantes bicycle highway and across the island to St Sebastien sur Loire to take a photo, and then took so long to found our way out that we ended up having lunch there. Eventually, we found a route that didn't involve an autoroute and made our way to Clisson. At the campsite we got rather excited by the microwave and so had ready meals in front of the TV in the communal lounge.


Clisson to St Malo du Bois
Heavy legs and a long day in the saddle only to arrive at a closed campsite. Bit of stealth camping necessary.

Nantes and Elephant Hunting

We met a couple touring on their bikes in the campsite and all headed into the city in search of a mechanical elephant! We soon found

Onward towards Rennes then down to Blain

We left Dinan on road and headed to Evran where we picked up the cycle path to Rennes.

St Malo then south....

Got up early then ended up speaking to a motorcycle tourist for ages and left a bit late! Still left Malo about 9 though. We went accross the barrage to Dinard. It was not busy as the horror stories make out but it was a Dimanche so maybe thats the trick. Picked up a Greenway and followed it to Dinan. Found the Municipal Campsite and whilst waiting for the office to open noticed our tire was shredded along the tire wall! No shops open being Dimanche and all so we wandered about the town looking for a bike shop. Decided to stay another day and walked out to Decathlon for a new tire. Picked up some supplies and headed back. When we got back there was a tandem touring couple next door to us! Had a long chat in the morning before setting off, comparing bikes, experiences and generally having a good chat. Also very impressed with thier bike stand.

 

The continuation AND BEYOND!!!

September 11th.We did not move on the next day!(Villedieu-des-poels) Still pretty tired so stayed another day. Just chilled out really. From there we geared up for a drizzly cycle to Avranches. A normal road suddenly became a motorway and we found ourselves halfway up the sliproad! A little navigating later we found ourselves at the foot of the mountain that is Avranches. Campsite was basically somebody's garden. A crazy hippy farm garden. With composting toilets and a pig. Met a veteran cycle tourist called Frank who was really interesting amd told us about the towpaths. A mug of wine with Frank and we called it a night. Liz got bitten by a bug and had a big swollen eye! The initial plan was to head to Mont Saint Michel, but a few people telling us how crowded and busy it was was enough to dissuade us. A few photos from afar and we pressed on toward St Malo. Lost our legs toward the end of the bay and stopped in a convenient farm campsite. The next day we actually got to St Malo. Managed to get ourselves thoroughly confused in the one way system inside the walled town and had to navigate our way through the crowds. Hung around for the tourist office to open then went to our campsite on the headland. Got chatting to a motorcycle tourist on the campsite so we ended up having a very late lunch and felt pretty grim until we discovered an incredible patisserie! A giant raspberry macaroon and salted caramel choux bun later and we perked up a bit. We wandered about the town walls and treated ourselves to dinner out, slept soundly despite the noise from the port. September 14th