Day 12 - Rest day

When you get close to the end of your route distance, you start to equate it to local routes you know like our 20mi Chester to Farndon circuit or the 6 miles to the centre of town or 12 miles to a neighbouring village and back. It becomes manageable in a bizarre sort of way.

We have 68 miles tomorrow to Irun which is the Spanish side of Hendaye. Mr B booked us onto a B&B (yeah for Booking.com) so hopefully crack Spanish sparkling wine celebrating the complete of our French North to South ride.

The Spanish bit looms though as we are taking the trains from Irun to San Sebastian, then to Bilboa and then to Santander. If we get there earlier we will camp at Loredo which we planned to do anyway.

Today was a sun catch-up day at the beach and pool. So relaxing. Hope all goes well tomorrow! 

Day 11 or section 9. Floods!

We woke up to a porch that were flooded after some heavy rain in the night. Slightly frantic as this is daughter's tent with a 2000 rating nothing like our polycotton big tent which can withstand almost any rain. I had dreams where I woke up in a flood of water then tugging sleeping bag towards the toilet block to sleep there.

Cleaned porch, packed away wet tent which was coated with sand (yuk! Remember to pack random biggish plastic bags for a possible situation like this) and pedalled at 8.30am as usual. First out of Biscarrosse Plage were huge hills. Overtook a group of men cycling in a mini convoy. That felt good!

We both had a very light breakfast so after 12 miles we were famished and made a quick stop to feed the human machines then off again. It was a picturesque stop along one of the lakes - beautiful!

Our first mechanical trouble of our epic adventure was just about 2 miles after that stop when Mr B couldn't uncleat from his left peddle at all. We spent at least 10 or 15min to try and get his Shimano sandal unclipped. It eventually came loose after many twists and turns and it seemed that he lost one of his screws that keep the cleat fixed to the sandal. So cleat off and we continued. Lunch stop just outside Mimizan overlooking the river watching boys jumping into the river from the bridge - won't be allowed in the UK - all health and safety 'whatsits' you know! The boys seemed to have loads of fun - I envied them as I was very hot.

We got going again after a lovely lunch of Edam cheese slices, ham slices and Herta sausages. Lots of protein fuel.

The miles kept going and the pine forests rolled by. When one stopped we entered another. The ground is covered by heather and lots of ferns which were gorgeous. We reached our campsite just after 3.30pm and are looking forward to 2 days here so no pedalling tomorrow. Weather forecast looked rainy again and just when we sat down outside the deluge started, even heavier than the night before. Some spits of moisture into the inner tent but it all held. Big thunderclaps close by. When it died down, I went to the toilet block and saw angry rivers of water patterns on the road heading down the hill. Glad we were not camping in their way!

56 miles done for the day.  Tired and off to sleep.

Day 10 (but section 8) - All off road cycling

Brilliant day! We left this morning in cloudy weather which was threatening to become more serious.  I could see the blueish black clouds on the left and almost wished that it would rain - it was so humid. Mr B said he heard thunder a couple of times. The day stayed like that until around 11am when the sun came out. Luckily it was never as hot as it was a couple of days ago.

Fantastic off road cycling on the best cycle roads ever. See the photos. They even have road numbers - D802 or D804 etc. We went through lovely seaside towns which neither of us have heard about. The cycle roads took us like previous days through thick pine forests which smelled like some shower gel. Saw some geckos but no snakes this time - Mr B saw one crossing the road a couple of days ago where as I only saw snake roadkill - and a big one was that.

We made excellent progress and by lunchtime had about 30 miles done - just another 25 to go. I had terrible foot cramps today - both feet on and off. We are taking electrolyte tablets in our drinks every cycling day so not sure what cause this.

I use two Garmins on this trip. I have an Edge 705 (sorry they don't make them anymore) and a Garmin Vivoactive HR which is on my wrist. Garmin Edge shows me the route which I have pre-loaded and Garmin Vivoactive shows my results with heart rate and tracking all in one. Even shows the current temperature.  Well, Garmin Edge shows the route as a thin blue line on the map. As we near the end, the thin blue line end comes in sight but oh is it slow to get to the last dot! It feels like it will take forever.

Tomorrow is another longer ride this time about 56 miles to a campsite where we want to spend two nights. Looking forward to it.

The thin blue line showing the route - it's those last 5 mile that are never ending!

Gironde Cycling map

Excellent signage on this section

Fabulous bike paths

Results for the day

It's hot in Biscarosse Plage!

Day 9 - Our second rest day

What a lazy day we had. Semi lie in with no cycling to chase us, it promised to be glorious and it was. Swimming, reading and general relaxing today made me wary of tomorrow's next stage down to Biscarosse.  It is going to be another hot day with 28C predicted with a lot of humidity. So more like 32C.

Mr B said there's a big hill around 40 miles to conquer - great. Just when it's really hot and you feel like melting.

So at the moment we are trying to even the balance between cycling and holiday.  Holiday very much on our minds so I need to break it gently to you my lovely readers that Chasing the Sun to Santander might need as name change to Chasing the Sun to Hendaye. Hendaye being the last French town on the Atlantic coast before you hit the Spanish border. We are seriously investigating trains to take us from Irun to Santander. I won't consider that a fail as we cycled France north to south by then and it must count for something! More about our evolving plans  later.

No photos as I left my phone in the tent before I went swimming!

Day 8 - And we thought it would be easy...

A day which we thought would be easy turned out to be quite a challenge despite it being 'just' 44 miles.

It started innocent enough with a long flat which took us through the pine forests with a cool morning breeze.

The road was tedious but totally off road.  Long straights with a bend here and there. It soon changed after 20 miles when we hit a forest with so many hills Brittany was looking like a preamble. On and on it went. The day grew hotter and hotter despite us setting off early trying to avoid it.

We had  brief stop for toilet paper (campsites in France don't supply toilet paper nor toiletseats!) before we hit the pedals again. The last 5 miles were relentless- why is it always the last bit?

We arrived just after 2pm - in time for a cooling shower. Here for another 2 nights (whoopppee!) before we tackle the next section.

Another rest day...

Checking the cycling map in one of the Pine Forests

Lovely bike paths (and me!)

Day 7 - Blissful beach day

Ok so no cycling today but instead a semi lie in and a fab beach day. It was cloudy most of the time but looking at our tan results you wouldn't say so.

Lunch overshot by two hours as we left all phones and watches back at the tent.

Chilled evening with a cheap bottle of white chardonnay (lovely by the way!), Camembert and a Baguette. Had to factor in Sunday tomorrow as France shut down at 12.30pm. A fellow camper lent us a table and two chairs - what bliss. 

We are booked in at a campsite 50mi from here so plan to leave early to get there over lunch time. Weather prediction is 32C !

Day 6 - Two bridges and a ferry

Waking up in the hotel room was fantastic. I slept like a log and felt less body ached than when we were tenting.

The route took us out of Rochefort and onto a good cycle path. A bit of a detour happened as we were faced with an enormous bridge and couldn't believe that we could cycle over it - but we did after finding the right way to go. The bridge looks like an upside down V and very steep. Not good if you are pedalling with a massive load on the bike.

More cycle paths followed and then we were faced with a second upside down V bridge. Again lowest gear to the top and a whizz down. We went through La Palmyre where we camped with my parents about 10 years ago - sweet memories!

The ferry cross the Gironde from Royan was good too as it provided respite from cycling. Arriving at the Port we saw the ferry leaving thinking we just missed it and that a wait will happen. Luckily they were running a double service so our ferry came pretty much 10 min after we arrived but it took another 10 min to offload.

Cycling down after we disembarked was a breeze through pine forests and all along the off road cycle path. Arrived at the campsite after 69.95 miles. Nearly 70 for the day. Tomorrow is our first rest day and I will be diving into the sea after my lie in.
Sitting outside the tent tonight we calculated our distances. An average of 59 miles per day with 6 days done. Not bad. We've also caught up with our deficit and is back on track with time.

Oh forgot to mention my huge accident...we bought dinner and Coke in Soulac.  Arriving at the campsite I discovered that one Coke that I carried developed a very very small puncture hole inside my bar bag soaking everything including my passport...what expensive Coke damage! Hope they let me back into the country with a Coke soaked and stained passport...! It looks aged...

It is a cycling holiday after all - too much cycling and not enough holiday - let's get the balance right.

Love the way the French decorate their roundabouts - wish it will take off in the UK

Ferry over the Gironde

And out comes a big tractor or harvester

On the Ferry across the Gironde

Me and Mr B

First bridge

Cycling through the pine forest

My hayfever escalated so much that I woke up with puffy eyes every morning - this photo shows some extent of it