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Travelogue
We had absolutely torrential rain in the night but somehow stayed dry in our tent. M1 was just warm enough in his very light summer sleeping bag. According to the Thermodrop attached to The Mule, the lowest temperature that night had been 10 degrees which is about the limit for being comfortable in that bag. All good though.
The forecast for today was for sunny intervals, some wind, but no rain. Hooray!
M1 fixed his new solar panel to the front of The Mule, slipped his powerbank into a side pocket of his (also new) handlebar bag amd connected the two together. This was to be a first test. The powerbank's display said it was at 84% capacity at this point.
We set off downhill through lovely farmland and stopped after a few km at the village of Saint-Aubin-en-Bray to visit the bakery. We bought pain au raisins and coffee and left the shop to stand by our bikes in the sunshine and eat breakfast.
A man spoke to us and quickly deduced that we had no clue what he was saying. He switched to flawless English and we had a chat with this pleasant local. He lived nearby, had been a teacher at the primary school along the street from the bakery and was now retired. We commented on how peaceful life in a French village must be with no traffic noise and only the sound of birds. He agreed and went on to say he'd been to Germany many times and on one occasion had bought a hand bell for the school to signal the start and end of break times. When he retired, he left the bell with the school and enjoys hearing it used every school day.
In Beauvais, we stopped in the town's large square and had coffee sat outside a bar. It's a Sunday so everything closes early assuming it opens at all, so we went into a Carre Four and bought provisions for later, assuming that this might be our last chance.
We cycled on another excellent cycle path, the Trans Oise. The weather was great and soon we'd shed the extra layers we'd put on to keep warm earlier in the morning.
In Liancourt we screeched to a halt outside a boulangerie. We bought a light lunch and cold drinks and consumed both sat on the steps in the sunshine. This is the life.
Finishing with the biggest climb of what otherwise had been a day of easy cycling, we found our campsite. Reception was reached by cycling up a brutally steep winding drive. Do campsite designers hate cyclists? Discuss.
It's a nice place. We pitched the tent and enjoyed hot showers.
A man whose camper van was parked nearby came over and explained entirely in French that his enormous dog was "special" and rather woofy and that we should walk the long way around his van and never take the direct route to the showers. Apparently his chien would go bonkers. Sure enough, it barks every time it sees someone but its tail does seem to be wagging which tends to be a dead giveaway. It's probably all bluff and needs a good tummy rub :-)
Amazingly the powerbank now says it's 100% full. To be honest, this is unbelievable. Those solar panels do little more than trickle charge. So it will be interesting to see what level it says it's at when it stops working!!
We're relaxing with books now after a tasty and simple dinner of bread, sticky camembert and tomatoes.
Great day. Feels like the holiday has now really begun.
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