| Day # | 5 | State of Legs | :-| |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 73.7 miles | km | 374 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 308.1 miles | km | 11142 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
It has to be said that today was a wet day. There, I said it. It didn't rain constantly. It might have been better if it had in some ways. But it rained quite frequently. It was never torrential rain but it was enough. We wore our rain jackets and waterproof over-trousers all day as a result and happily, both garments performed very well indeed.
Our route continued along the Brest Nantes canal once again. But not that far into the ride, DISASTER! Well OK, maybe not disaster. More like SLIGHT INCONVENIENCE!! Because once again, we were met with the dreaded Route Barrée sign and a barrier across the path. This led to us taking a detour away from the canal and then back to it further along. The detour added four or five miles to what we already knew would be a pretty long ride, especially given how heavy our bikes are (have I mentioned....?). But it had to be done. Weirdly, the detour was entirely uphill as we worked away from the canal and seemed to be equally uphill as we headed back towards it again! This is presumably an artefact of our fevered imaginations but it did seem that way.
We stopped in the village of Malestroit and went into a cafe bar and ordered cups of hot chocolate. As we sat down, the rain started outside in earnest so our timing was good. We sat a while and enjoyed our hot, sweet drinks and then headed outside once again to resume our journey. As we made to left, we spoke with another cycling couple who had entered the bar just after us. They were Dutch and it turned our were riding a tandem bike! We've seen a few couples on tandems on this section of EV1. It's fairly flat so maybe that means it's suited to these big machines. Neither M1 not M2 fancy ever getting a tandem though. A canal, a big wobbly tandem piloted by us two? What could possibly go wrong?!
Normally M1 has his smartphone in the top compartment of a frame bag. The bag has a transparent cover and is a soft case so this allows M1 to squeeze the case to press the power button on the side of the phone and wake up the screen without having to take the phone out of the case. And this is how navigation is done. With the Organic Maps app running but screen off, very little battery is used. When we need to check our position relative to the planned route or determine which of a choice of paths to take, M1 wakes up the phone, Organic Maps acquires the current position from GPS in a couple of seconds, positions the map with that location centred and voila, we know where we are and what the route looks like at that point. Squeezing the case again switches the screen off to save battery. Using this technique is remarkably efficient. On one ride in England, 65 miles were ridden on unfamiliar roads and at the end of the ride the phone was still showing it had 85% battery. However......
The frame bag has a horrible tendency to steam up when it's wet. Best case that makes life difficult. Worse, sometimes you can't see the screen of the phone at all. And worst case, sufficiently large raindrops landing on the cover of the frame bag can be registered as "touches" by the phone's touch screen which plays havoc with the navigation app. In other words, on rainy days, having the phone and navigation app in the frame mounted bag just doesn't work. Fortunately, M1 learned this lesson on last year's trip and brought a backup solution this time in the form of a waterproof phone holder that hangs around your neck. It was originally bought for hiking and performs very well. It seems completely waterproof and does not steam up. The only downside is with it around your neck, you need to tuck it into your jacket to stop it swinging around and with or without this measure, you really need to stop cycling to check the map. With the frame bag solution, you don't need to stop. Anyway, the conditions being what they were, M1 decided it was time to swap to the new phone holder. This rainy weather backup system worked well enough but it's not as convenient as using the phone in frame bag method.
Onwards we cycled along the canal path. Suddenly, M1 heard voices that might have been saying something like "get out of the way!". He was cycling on the wrong side of the path and another bike had been quietly approaching at great speed from behind. Swerving to the right to allow the other cyclist past, M1 was amazed to find that it was in fact two cyclists on one bike! It was the Dutch couple on their tandem and they were fairly whizzing along, not something which can ever be said of M1 and/or M2! M1 was a little put out by being overtaken in such a convincing manner and might have said something uncharitable after the couple were out of earshot!
Despite their speed, we caught the couple again. We can only assume they'd stopped for a three course meal somewhere. But it was at this point that M1 discovered their dark secret. Their tandem bicycle was in fact an eBike! It had a motor and at least two large batteries! This explained the speed and ease with which they passed us. It wasn't that we were being so shockingly slow after all (even though we were, still are and will continue to be!)
We left the canal path at the town of Redon in search of food. We found a novel fast food place that served meals entirely based around Indian naan bread. We both had naan bread wraps containing salad and felafel, which were quite delicious.
After lunch we returned to the canal-side path and continued. It was quite pretty at times. Eventually we reached the town of Blain, picked up groceries for dinner and headed to the campsite. The staff were friendly and we soon had our tent up. M1 made dinner by quickly cutting a large baguette into pieces and slathering each with lashings of Boursin cheese. That was all there was to dinner. We were both way too exhausted for anything more elaborate.
After eating, we were asleep really quickly and probably both slept for at least ten hours! All good. And tomorrow's another day.
Photos!
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| SLIGHT INCONVENIENCE!!! |
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