| Day # | 4 | State of Legs | :-| |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 59.5 miles | km | 781 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 234.4 miles | km | 10768 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
It rained in the night and the forecast suggested it would rain on and off today so we donned our rain jackets and then headed off on our bikes for our next destination, the small town of Josselin.
Not long after leaving the campsite, route V8 left the roads behind and entered woodland, following the banks of a stream. This made for a pleasant and peaceful environment and every now and again we'd spot an interesting bird. There were quite a few fairly large birds of prey that would effortlessly glide between the trees as we approached. We're not sure of the species but are veering towards the view that they are Black Kites. We'll be more attentive the next time we see one in the hope of being more certain.
The trail we were following through the woods was composed of gravel and dirt. It's been sporadically rainy in these parts for a while and so the wet surface was sticky and at times outright muddy. All of this is fine, our bikes having 42 mm tyres but it does make cycling harder work than you'd imagine, even on the flat which most of the time the path was. And this woodland section of today's ride was 25 miles long! So the woods made a nice change from country roads but the surface was slowly sucking the strength out of our legs and we were glad to find ourselves on beautiful French tarmac once again when that eventually happened.
We passed through farmland for a while, after which we found ourselves cycling by a canal. This was the Brest Nantes canal, a long waterway linking these two cities. It's also part of the Eurovelo route EV1 that starts in northern Norway and ends in Portugal, a mighty cycle path indeed! And we'll be following EV1 all the way to the Spanish border now.
Hunger made its presence felt and we were pleased to find a Carrefour grocery store right by the canal in the village of Rohan. M1 went in and emerged a little later with a still warm baguette, straight from the oven, a whole Camembert and a couple of tomatoes. Chunky sandwiches were made and eaten, sat in the sun on the wall by the store with the canal on the other side. There are worse lunches to eat and worse places to eat it. It was lovely and just what we needed.
After our satisfying and partly rejuvenating lunch we continued along the canal, admiring the occasional home and always watching our for wildlife.
Eventually we reached the town of Josselin which we knew nothing about. It turned out to be a very attractive old town with a magnificent castle by the canal.
We found our way to the campsite, checked in and pitched our tent. This is a very nice campsite indeed. Quiet and green and with excellent facilities including a covered area with a tables to sit at and a bar next to it. We sat there for a while, enjoying several coffees whilst M1 did some work on this blog. We've been without WiFi this entire trip so far and even though this campsite had it available, it wasn't fast enough to be worth using. Fortunately the 4G service was good and fast so a little progress was made in catching up on blog entries.
Another good day was had. Our legs are still rated amber (we never quite recovered from the ordeal of day 1!) but they're doing what's asked of them and we're enjoying the journey.
And..... we took some photos.
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