Blog

We have left the wonderful flat cycle paths of France behind and are now in hilly Spain. Our cycle into San Sebastion was on a dual carraigeway – which is like a motorway but worse as they allow cyclists on there. It is only 4 kms to our camp from San Sebastion, but they didn’t tell us it was up a bloody steep hill! We had to push our loaded bikes up 4 kms!

Now we are rained in at a campground after our first night. It is our first day of rain in our 8 weeks of cycling so I guess it’s not too bad. It was too wet to pack up our tent so we decided to have a rest day and caught the bus into San Sebastion. We are currently enjoying a McWifi and fries (MacDonalds has free internet in Europe).

Below are the blogs from the 13th – 18th June.

We camped at the base of this massive sand dune. It is the biggest Dune in Europe.

It was really steep and looked a bit scary to climb so we decided to drink our bottle of red wine before tackling it.

Here’s Mike climbing up:

And Here’s me at the top:

Fantastic view up here:

Climbing down was much more fun

During the day we also saw a couple of turtles

This was another day of idyllic cycle paths through forests and beaches.

We decided on a rest day today as we were camped beside a lake and the campground was cheap at only 10 euros.

We spent the day doing washing and stocking up on food from the local LIDL (22c beer).

We saw a red squirrel – so cute.

Today Mike got his second flat tyre of the trip.

Our table set ready for dinner. Our panniers make great seats, and the wine is really cheap here.

We camped at a really busy campground on the beach. It was full of young surfers and we thought we could be in for a noisy night. It looked like rain so we struggled to make a shelter with a tarp we bought. A couple of girls camping nearby saw us struggling and offered us some poles – which was very helpful.

We did a massive 70 kms today. The weather started out rainy and it drizzled on and off during the day, but it was mostly fine. The weather was looking dodgy so we took a cabin in the caravan park. Of course it didn’t rain.

Day 35 – La Tremblade to Royan Click to view route

Tuesday June 7, 2011, 38 km (24 miles) – Total so far: 1,178 km (732 miles)

For the month of May we had endless sunny days, and now it is June it seems the sunny day spell has been broken as we woke up to rain again. Bugger – I hate having to pack up a wet tent. Luckily it stopped raining when we got up, but everything was wet. We leave our panniers outside the tent at night as there is no room inside. They are meant to be 100% waterproof, but the rain still manages to seep in through the top a bit. It was bloody freezing too.

We packed up our tent wet and put on our wet weather gear and continued on.Despite the overcast damp morning, It was a pleasant ride through the forest. In the afternoon the sun came out and it was quite warmish.

I couldn’t handle another damp night, plus the tent and my clothes needed drying out as they were starting to smell a bit. We decided to try a cabin at the campground. Only problem was it was a two night minimum. Bugger – we really didn’t want to stay two nights – but the black clouds above forced the decision to stay in a cabin as another damp night in the tent would have been grotty.

Obviously it didn’t rain and we had two days of brilliant sunshine!

Day 36 – Royan

Wednesday June 8, 2011

As we had to book our cabin for 2 day minimum, we took the day off cycling and did a 40 minute walk into Royan.

Most of Royan was bombed during the war so it’s a pretty modern city having been rebuilt in the 1950’s.

Our little cabin was a bit of luxury, with our own toilet, shower, kitchen etc.

It was a little chilly so we had our socks and jandals on. Is this wrong?

day 39 – Saturday 11 june 2011 – 54 kms

We are continuing down the coast of France. Some of the paths were alongside the beach, and some in the forests.

We saw a bunny on a skateboard

Day40 – Sunday 12 june 2011 – 36 kms

Today was a wonderful ride through forests.

We spotted a deer

and a library in the woods.

We stayed in a camping ground cabin as it was starting to rain. As usual, once checked in, there was no rain at all.

Day 29 – La Tranche sur Mer to Esnandes

Wednesday June 1, 2011, 45 km (28 miles) – Total so far: 1,028 km (639 miles)

We ignored the gps followed a cycle path for most of the day.

We saw a giant bunny

we found a campground about 10 kms from La Rochelle for only 9 euros.