Bikepacking 2024 - St. Paul-en-Born to Messanges

Day #

19

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	46.7 miles	km	600 feet	metres	1
Trip Totals	923.6 miles	km	20647 feet	metres	1

Today's Route

Route So Far

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Travelogue

The day started with a major shock.

It was raining! And judging by the sound of the raindrops hitting the roof of the tent as we lay there feeling.... shocked.... it was raining very, very hard. DISASTER!!

But in fact it wasn't raining hard at all. The tent does a brilliant job of amplifying the sound and impact of every drop of rain and the fact we were camped under a tree, which was building larger droplets of water and then releasing them onto the roof of our tent below it further contributed to this auditory illusion.

So, it was raining. But not hard. MODERATE INCONVENIENCE!

We packed up the tent, put on our waterproof jackets and trousers and set off. We were both relieved to know that we only had about 45 miles to do today which we expected to be easy in comparison with the 72 miles of the day before.

Naturally, Second Breakfast was the priority and soon enough, M2 spotted a boulangerie by the road. We screeched to a halt and went inside to order coffee and pastries. There were novel pastries to sample as well, including sweet French pretzels, known here as Bretzels, and caramel filled croissant.

Second Breakfast dealt with, we continued and were soon cycling along a path in pine forest once again. Almost all of the day's cycling would prove to be in this environment. It was similar to the forests we'd cycled through on previous days except that one species of tree (not a pine) seemed to have tasty bark as we saw a great many of this tree with its bark completely stripped to a height of about 1 metre. Deer are known to have this rather destructive habit but we didn't see any deer. Let's blame deer anyway.

We stopped to look at a black and white lighthouse in Saint-Julien-en-Born. It seemed a remarkable distance from the coast, to be honest, but presumably its light could be seen from the ocean.

In Léon, we stopped for coffees but not lunch. A supermarket was next on the list and we'd identified one not too far from the campsite. So, after coffees we set off towards the supermarket, still following our planned route.

M1 was excited to twice spot a novel bird. Slightly smaller than a sparrow, the bird first sighted was grey in colour whilst the second was black. In both cases, when in flight you could see bright orange tail feathers. It turned out that this was a Black Redstart. The black bird was probably a male and the grey, probably a female.

Black Redstart (photo from Merlin app)

We bought groceries for both lunch and dinner at the store and then cycled the remaining way to today's campsite in the village of Messanges. The reception was closed so we sat at a table and had bread and a very nice cheese that was made with sheep's milk.

Reception opened whilst we were eating and on finishing, M1 checked in. The welcome was friendly as is so often the case. The campsite is a good one, green and fairly quiet and with good clean facilities. We're sat in the bar right now enjoying cold drinks and using the WiFi.

We've now cycled over 900 miles and are getting close to the Spanish border. What's more, TODAY IS OUR LAST NIGHT OF CAMPING ON THIS TRIP! It's true! Tomorrow we're in a bed and breakfast in France and then after that we'll be in Spain and using Airbnb apartments and hotels. It almost feels like cheating. But it's not :-)

Photos!