The Bikepacker: Bikepacking 2024

Day #

State of Legs

:-|

	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	37.5 miles	km	856 feet	metres	1
Trip Totals	345.6 miles	km	11998 feet	metres	1

Today's Route

Route So Far

Travelogue

Today's destination was the city of Nantes where we had an Airbnb apartment booked for two nights, giving us one day of rest (and maybe a little tourism) tomorrow. We couldn't get into the apartment until 4 pm and Nantes was only about 35 miles from Blain so there was no point leaving early. So instead, we had a relaxing morning in the tent, reading and taking an extra nap, which we fully deserved. Our legs are still rated amber!

When the time came to get ready to leave, we got up and started getting organised. M1 moved The Mule to a better position for loading and it was then he noticed a problem. The Mule's front tyre was flat! DISASTER!!! Well, not exactly a disaster. More like MODERATE INCONVENIENCE!!

Moderate inconvenience it may have been but more to the point, it was a big surprise. In the last 4,700 miles of bikepacking, The Mule has not suffered a single puncture. The current tyres, Continental Contact Plus seem awesome and we have great faith in them. But nothing is indestructible and the tyre was most definitely flat, so that was that.

M1 wheeled The Mule to a sheltered spot under the roof of the shower block so he could work on the stricken bike out of the slight rain and on a clean concrete surface. On removing the tyre, it was examined very carefully. There was no sign of the tyre having been pierced anywhere and there was nothing inside the tyre that might have caused the inner tube to be breached. How strange. Was the valve faulty? Some air was pumped into the tube but it was not possible to detect air escaping. It was a little noisy at that point as there was work being done on the campsite so that made it difficult to detect the tell tale hissing sound of air escaping. Weird. But the tyre was flat, so something had happened to cause this. Sabotage?! Unlikely but a logical possibility. At this stage, the cause was not the key issue so M1 fitted one of the spare inner tubes that we carry, put the tyre and wheel back on and inflated the tube. All good. The original inner tube was stowed so it could be examined more closely at our apartment and if possible repaired.

And with that..... we loaded up and set off.

About half today's route continued to follow the canal but then veered away onto roads and trails.

In the village of Sucé-sur-Erdre we spotted what looked like a very nice boulangerie/patisserie. We were hungry by now and to be honest, struggle to cycle past these places anyway, so we stopped and went in. When we emerged, we'd bought two savoury tarts, one filled with tuna fish and tomato, which M1 ate and one with various vegetables which was M2's choice. M2 also had an amazing caramel and nut tart whilst M1 chose a Breton speciality, a Far Breton with Prunes. It too was tasty though it has to be said that M2's choice would win if it were a competition.

We soon reached the outskirts of Nantes. It was immediately clear that the city has excellent cycling infrastructure. The cycle lane was in great condition and partitioned properly from the traffic almost all of the way into the centre. And there were signs telling us the estimated remaining travel time in minutes.

We're staying in Île de Nantes which per the name is an island sitting in two branches of the River Loire. It's on the second floor and accessed via a secure courtyard. We had assumed that lucky M1 would need to physically carry all the luggage and each bike up stairs to the second floor as has been necessary in similar circumstances in the past. Never exactly fun but not a problem either! But the apartment block has an elevator! So, this promised to be much easier than usual.

When we found the elevator though, to our dismay (especially M1's), it was tiny. Would the bikes fit? How?!

Well, they did fit. One at a time, standing upright on the rear wheel with M1 squished underneath. It was an achievement worthy of a circus contortionist.

Mission accomplished, with bikes, bags and people in the apartment, all that was left was to acquire groceries and get clothes into the washing machine. M1 set off on foot to the local Carrefour and M2 figured out the washing machine and drier and got our clothes loaded up.

The criteria for dinner was that it should be as close to zero effort as possible and not involve going anywhere. We were way too tired for anything else! So, inevitably that meant pizza :-)

We will sleep well in our apartment and are looking forward to a rest day. Trip admin, tourism and rest. That's the order of the day.

Photos!