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Today's Route
Route So Far
Travelogue
We had a good night in the cabin by the pond. In the morning we had breakfast, packed up, jumped on our trusty bikes and set off again, expecting a relatively easy day with some climbing to begin with and then mostly downhill from there. We'd got this idea from having a quick glance at the profile last night.
But we were in for a surprise!
Yes, as you can see from the profile above, from about the 40 km point, there's a very clear downhill trend. But that's the keyword here. Trend. In fact, the road went.....
down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up,down,up, etc
And all those little uphill sections really added up so that by the end of the day, we'd done more climbing than any other day! Oh and there was a headwind too. Obviously.
So this was a tiring day. Legs moaned and no amount of caffeine or sugar would cheer them up.
Eventually, we cycled into Parthenay and our morale got a couple of much needed boosts.
Firstly, the old sector of town is very impressive. It's a mediaeval, walled city and a lot of the old streets have been well preserved. It's worth visiting this part of France just to wander down these streets.
Secondly, we found a bakery :-) And what's more, it had a four for the price of three special offer! How could we resist? That's a rhetorical question by the way. We're not interested in anyone's ideas on how we could resist and eat less French baked goods, thank you very much.
With coffee and pastries inside us, we carried on.
We eventually found ourselves in Niort, a large town up river from our destination, found a supermarket and did our usual shopping.
From there it was a 30 minute ride along the river bank to our campsite in Magne.
While we were putting the tent up, a couple parked by us in their large, self-converted van. We started chatting. They were a French couple in their sixties and they'd recently cycled back to France all the way from Singapore! On a tamdem! And...their route had included the Pamir Highway. They were very friendly and more happy to tell us stories from their travels and share tips about the Pamir Highway. We passed some of the evening in their company.
Photos
