| Day # | 11 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 63.9 miles | km | 1027 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 508.7 miles | km | 15955 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
 |
 |
| Route So Far |
 |
Travelogue
Today was an eventful today and on occasion, almost a tragic day!
Sad as it was to have to say goodbye to the "little angels" of yesterday and their "playful antics", such as throwing their frisbee or kicking their ball repeatedly into the side of our tent, not to mention their "delightful music", not to mention (worst of all), their being SO HAPPY and having SO MUCH FUN ALL OF THE TIME.... we did need to leave the municipal campsite at Haybes and its horde of 8 year old occupants. So, we got up and prepared to leave. Just as we started to take the tent down, it started to drizzle. Not hard, but enough to spur us into more rapid action, to get the tent down and packed away before it got too wet.
The drizzle was fine, as drizzle is want to be and so hard to gauge. But 100 metres after leaving the campsite, we decided it was dense enough to soak us through, so we stopped and with much faffing about, donned our waterproof clothes. We mounted our bikes again, only to notice that it had stopped raining :-) We kept the waterproofs on.... just in case.
 |
| Waterproofs off, just outside the campsite |
 |
| Waterproofs on! |
We continued along the path by the River Meuse, enjoying the scenery and how it looked today, with low clouds over the hills.
After yesterday's 57 mile ride, both M1 and M2 were suffering from tired and sulky legs. Not a problem though, what with having about 64 miles to ride today. Oh dear!
If there are any general rules to cycling though, it is a fact that food and in particular, pain au chocolat (PaC) can revive tired legs. So, we decided to stop at a boulangerie as soon as we could for PaC and coffee.
About 20 miles from our point of departure, we entered the town of Monthermé. M2 spotted a sign advertising a boulangerie on the other side of the river, so we crossed over and found it. From what we could see from outside, it looked perfect. It even sold coffee.
We decided to park the bikes on the opposite side of the street, by railings where there would be no risk of us obstructing the pavement past the shops. We wheeled them over and proceeded to make a big meal of trying to padlock them together. It's more difficult than you might imagine when both bikes have their panniers mounted! And in the process of manoeuvring The Mule in a tight space, M1 lost control of the heavy machine and its luggage and The Mule crashed to the ground!
"Au secours! Mule down! Mule down!", M1 might have said. But didn't.
Fearing the worst, M1 kneeled down by The Mule and spoke quietly to it, directly into the nearest handlebar for some reason. The Mule was unresponsive. Hastily checking for signs of physical damage, M1 spotted that The Mule had suffered a fracture! Several centimetres of the front, plastic mudguard had broken clean off! No wonder, The Mule appeared to be in shock!
Helping The Mule back onto its two wheels, M1 was able to verify that apart from the broken mudguard, The Mule was in fact OK and just being its usual, stoic self :-) No further complications are anticipated except that M1 will presumably end up with wet ankles the next time it rains.
There was a queue of four people ahead of us to be served at the boulangerie. We could see that there were a dozen or so tasty looking pain au chocalats in the display cabinet, and we were salivating in anticipation. But then, the person at the head of the line, ordered a couple of them and we started to feel a slight anxiety about the state of the PaC supply chain.
The next person also bought PaCs , and the next until there were only four remaining. And the one person ahead of us in the queue bought them all! Disaster! What would we do?!
"It's OK, we'll just get some of those", said M2, pointing at some rather nice looking "carré aux amandes".
 |
| Carré aux amandes |
M1 mumbled something sulky about them not being pain au chocolat ".....but OK if we must".
We took our coffees and pastries back to the bikes and took our first bite. M1 looked at M2. M2 looked at M1. And both said, at more or less the same time.... "Mon dieu! These are better than pain au chocolat!".
A flash of guilt and pleasure passed through both M1 and M2. It is believed they are now suffering from what psychologists might call Pain Au Chocolat Abandonment Syndrome. But not to worry because those things are simply delicious and a full recovery is expected, especially if a great many more carré aux amandes are consumed and maybe some pain au chocolat too!
 |
| Yum! |
Feeling way better than before, with fully functioning legs, we carried on.
 |
| We don't know what was going on here! |
 |
| EV19 north and south |
 |
| There, you can see it now |
Eurovelo route EV19 follows the Trans-Ardennes Voie Verte and there are information signs at intervals.
It was at this particular information point, that we had another shock. M1 uses the Organic Maps app on his phone for navigation. When planning accommodation, his habit is to mark the places booked on the map by "dropping a pin" at their respective locations. We were wondering how far it was to today's campsite, having already cycled 40 miles and expecting it to be not much more than 20. But on checking the distance to the next marked location on the map, we were shocked to see that there was still at least 40 more miles to go!
"Oh mon dieu!", M1 might have said (but did not).
"Oh cher!", M2 might have said because she's much more polite than M1. But she did not.
In fact, M1 said many things, which had they been in French very probably would have included the word "merde!".
But.... there was no need for such drama. M1 had simply failed to mark today's campsite on the map and it was, as expected only 20 - 25 miles away. "Phew!" M1 and M2 might have said and in fact did!
We continued along the river, heading for the town of Douzy, with our campsite on one side of the town by a small airfield and a supermarket from which to buy provisions on the other.
 |
| Weird craft in the river - no idea what it is! |
We found the supermarket we were looking for but oh no! It was closed! But also "Phew! It opens in 30 minutes". Another non-disaster averted!
We waited in the sunshine, sat on a bench by a bus stop and when the time came, M1 went and bought lots of tasty stuff.
Next stop the campsite. It's very nice and we're in a quiet location with half a dozen other bikepackers or groups of bikepackers.
 |
| Tent and the bikes doubling as drying rack |
There's lots of conversation between bikepackers about where everyone is from and where they are cycling to. We had a long chat with a French couple about many things and on discovering that Philip is a teacher of electronics and computer science, were amazed to find that he uses a device called the BBC microbit in his lessons, a device which M1 was involved in creating, in his professional life. His wife and M2 were delighted when M1 and Philip started talking at length about microbit and Bluetooth and the various projects they'd used them in.
Late lunch, in case you are wondering, was a classic Camping Mush made with pre-cooked lentils, red pepper, tomatoes (of course), avocado, tuna and (for M1 only), a splash of tabasco sauce. It was proper yummy, I can tell you.
And later, there was French bread and Cassis (blackcurrant) jam. Also, very nice.
Fin
No comments:
Post a Comment