Day 8 - Sunday 19th September, 2010
Jargeau > Briare
41.7 miles
3:40 moving time
Ouch, that was a cold night, about zero. The gear held up well, and it wasn't too cold (wouldn't want to go too much lower though).
Another cold morning at camp
Neither of us can believe quite how soaked everything is. The tents deserve a new award for the amount of moisture they've managed to hold on every available surface.
Moisture. More moisture.
Packing up's pretty miserable. Just walking to the loo and back, and walking around the tent to start drying it, my shoes and socks are soaked through and my feet are freezing. My hands are now freezing too and I have to wring my super-micro-thingy towel out about three times just dealing with one surface of condensation. Nice - I've got to dry myself with that tomorrow! Even the inner's quite wet today, and I felt a few drops on me last night too, so it's not perfect. It needs detaching so I can get in there and do even more drying. Performing the same exercise, John's not the least bit happy about it either, and I feel a bit sorry for him as I think his initial big enthusiasm for camping wasn't based on the realities of actually camping, and has now severely wained. But I can't talk, I'm being a wuss as well.
We practically spend half the morning getting out of camp. Even the bikes were soaked, and thankfully I remembered to put the carrier bag on my saddle.
The scene while packing down.
Back in the village we can't believe it's so busy compared to the evening before. Where does everyone go in France in the evenings? Last night it was deserted, but now it seems we're the last ones up and out for breakfast.
Looking a bit like a couple of hobos, we sit in the sun at a cafe, drinking our coffees and eating croissants, while all around us our clothes are drying. I've changed socks and have my wet pair on the chair next to me. Sorry everyone.
The warming up bit takes ages, and we're not going anywhere until we're filled with a bit more joy. We must look like a pair of grumpy old men. Oh, we are a pair of grumpy (not so old) men. I don't think we're going to be camping tonight somehow.
Grumps
There are quite a few other cycle tourists around, and the bikes begin to stack up. A Swiss couple say hello. They're doing a similar distance to what we've planned, but they're going East to West, rather than South. They both looked well kitted out (we spot the Rolhoff hubs), and they seem a bit happier than us - probably because they're staying in B&Bs, but they're cold and they say they've been cycling in freezing fog from Orleans this morning.
By about 11 we'd warmed up and dried out a bit and feeling better we get on our way as the Swiss couple get ready to go. We buy a couple of little bottles of water, and as we're pouring them into our bottles, a man leans out of the cafe window and offers to fill them all up for us. That's really nice. Bikes are definitely a bit more part of the culture here in general - but especially in this region.
A bit of kayaking on the Loire
The path we found kind of stopped at Jargeau, but we know where we're heading, so we go straight up into a park, on unsurfaced roads. It's quite exciting riding, and pretty off-road actually. The bikes seem to hold up, and it feels great (if not maybe just a little bit silly) to be putting them through their paces. The river's just alongside us through the trees but we can't see it properly. A clearing appears, and we leave the track and head to the rivers edge. As the view opens up, we can't quite believe we're in France. We walk across a wide river bank of sand, with bushes and trees popping out of it, until we finally hit the water. It's quite hot in the sun now, and it feels more like Africa than France. It actually brings back memories of Safari, and if I'd been transplanted here and asked to guess where I was I would never have said France. Not in a million years. Truly beautiful. Despite the start, this is turning out to be the best cycling day ever, and it's only about lunchtime.
It's just beautiful...
...wherever you stop
A few more miles of slightly bone-shuddering surface leads us to a park bench right on the Loire. Perfect - time for lunch! Time for a spot of laundry and drying too.
Lunch and a spot of drying
As we tuck into more bread and cheese, and some (about half the packet of) Micaodo biscuits and other supplies we picked up in Chartres, I notice that the 50 block suncream I decided to use today has caught loads of flies, and as usual, I look pretty rough. I manage to wipe a few off.
The next most vivd memory is some miles on, where, now baking hot we pull into a village that has a solitary cafe, and we seriously need something cold to drink like a couple of Orangina's. Even with flavoured tablets in the water, there's only so much warm water you can take. The pair of guys sitting outside are a bit moody and off-putting. The owner's not much friendlier. Maybe we've come at a bad time. But none of that is really a problem compared to the fact that where we're sitting it absolutely stinks of (what we can only assume is) cat wee. We move away but with even the slightest of a breeze it reeks. We gulp down the drinks and move on pronto.
Sully is marked on the velo map, with a symbol of a chateau. We cycle to it and it's really beautiful. It's so nice we devote an official ten minutes (nearly) to get a few nice photos and a quick video. Going in's not really an option on this schedule. So many sights just sail past us, but if you want to cover ground in a short-ish space of time, you need to keep moving. Another trip. As we leave Sully, there are a load more classic cars, as well as archers shooting at bizarre targets of life-sized cartoon animals - giraffes etc - along the river bank. We hope the arrows are fake as some zing past pretty close to us, but they seem to hit the target. More further along. We laugh - thankfully health and safety hasn't ruined good old fashioned fun in France. This lot would be pounced on in a second in the UK.
Chateau Sully
We see what looks like a nuclear power station ahead. Wow! Who the hell decided to put it there? It's no wonder this area is getting near to the end of the official cycle path, with quite a few sections still in progress. We both agree they need to plant some huge trees along the track to try and hide it. Or maybe get a few more wind farms in and shut it down. We've got loads of electrical gadgets that need charging, so we can hardly say we don't need power, but why nuclear, and why at the edge of a world heritage site? Come on France. Sort out the camping showers, and sort out these nukes.
There's been a mix of roads and cycle paths (or a bit of a combo) so far, but we seem to be pretty-much all on cycle path now. And most of the time we get an amazing view of the river, which never gets tiring.
We leave the trail and head into Briare. The route in is over an aquaduct (or viaduct?), and it's really beautiful. I get the wobbles as I cycle along the path, sandwiched between the railings and a long drop to the river, pedestrians, and the canal on the right. I go all weird and feel like I'm really unbalanced and I'll come off. On day one I felt a bit out of balance with a heavy bar bag, but not now, the bike felt really natural ten seconds ago. Never had that before. I start thinking what would happen if I went in, and then couldn't clip out of my pedals. Not sure how those thoughts managed to ruin my view, but there you go. John, immune to whatever weirdness gripped me, tears over it as pedestrians clear out of his way.
An amazing way to cross the river.
We find a small hotel, cheap-ish rather than cheap, but it does the job and it's actually quite nice with bike storage shed, and a bar.
We know the drill so we rush out to try and catch somewhere open, and after being told a few places were closing, we found something.
It's a cold walk back, and while trying to do some planning and backing stuff up to the laptop while having a beer or two, we get chucked out of the bar which closes as ten when the owner goes to bed.
Having not had a chair to sit in in the evening for a few days, we're a bit peeved as we thought we had an evening of 'luxury'. But the lady has to sleep, so we call it a day and do the same.
A short day, but an amazing one, and one to remember. Total at the end of day eight, 318.3 miles - by far the longest ride we've ever done.
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