European Cycle Tour 2011

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Sun, Sea and 22c Beer

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

Day 9 – Dinard to Saint Cast-le-Guildo (click to display route in new window)

Wednesday May 11, 2011, 26 km (16 miles) – Total so far: 340 km (211 miles)

Cycling with a hangover is not much fun. We spent the last couple of days at Ali’s campground in Saint Cast. It wasn’t open till the weekend so she was able to put us in a luxury cabin with toilet, shower and full kitchen with oven. They call this camping!

We found a supermarket which sold beer for 22c per can and this is to blame for the hangover. Beer is cheap in France and would be a great place to live if you were an alcoholic. We are moving to France next summer to run a campground.

Ali was still in the process of getting the campground ready for opening so Mike helped to build a few barbecues. He built so many it is starting to look like one.

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This one’s for Lynda

Saturday, May 14th, 2011

This is what we do with leftover bread that has gone a bit stale at the end of the day. Sister Lynda came up with this idea on our cycle trip through Germany and Austria in 2009.

The Recipe.

1. roughly chop some garlic
2. Mix garlic with butter
3. smother bread with the garlic butter mix
4. Fry in the frypan

ok – so it’s just garlic bread, but it tastes damn good after a day of cycling.

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Mont Saint Michel

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Day 8 – 9/5/11 monday 26 kms

It was a short ride to Mont-Saint-Michel. We set up camp about 14:30 then spent the afternoon wandering around the abbey.

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Day 7 Rest Day

Friday, May 13th, 2011

Day 7 – Sunday 8 may 2011

It was a drizzly start to the day. We had ridden 15 kms when we spotted a Decathlon. We had been trying to find a cycle shop for ages as Mike wants some front panniers to redistribute the weight on the bike a bit. The only problem was it was Sunday and Decathlon was shut. poo.

As it was threatening rain we decided to call it a day and we booked into a hotel near decathlon. This way we could sit out the rain and visit decathlon in the morning. Typical – as soon as we checked in to the hotel the sun came out and it was a glorious day. To top things off – Decathlon didn’t have the panniers we wanted. But we did have free internet – so we caught up on some mail and some blogs.

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French Frogs!

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Day 5 – Briocquevill-Sur-Mer to Genets (click to view days route in new page)

I was woken in the night by someone or something trying to get into our tent.

WTF is that I whispered to Mike.

Snore replied Mike.

“Seriously – wake up, there is something trying to get into our tent”

Mike rolls over and continues to snore.

I turned around and there was a giant frog sliming up the side of our tent. gross! and it wasn’t just a little pond frog, it was gigantic – larger than a small bunny.

Mike It’s a giant frog – get it off, get it off.

Snore replied Mike.

I had to flick it a few times to get it off when finally it fell to the ground with a thud. So gross, now our tent is covered in frog slime. I couldn’t sleep in fear of it sliming all our belongings that lay outside the tent.

Apart from the frog episode the day was pretty much the same as the others. There were a few more hills which I managed to cycle up today. I have started treating the hills as a bit of a challenge and as a result I am starting to enjoy them.

View of Mont Saint Michel

We decided to camp after only 30kms. No point in pushing it is there?

It seems the worse the campground facilities, the more expensive they are. This is the most expensive campsite yet and the facilities are hideous. At 17 euros (NZD $35) per night I would expect better that this.

toilets

At least they had toilet paper – but you had to grab some before you went in.

And the grotty outdoor sinks.

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Thunder and Lightning, Very Very Frightening.

Sunday, May 8th, 2011

Day 4 Gouville-sur-Mer to Briocquevill-Sur-Mer (click the link to view the route in a new page)

Another awesome day of cycling. It really doesn’t get much better than this. It was warm, and the quiet country lanes a pleasure to cycle through.

We did a detour down to the beach and prepared a ham baguette we bought earlier on.

We found another nice campsite right on the beach. The only problem was it kept threatening rain while we were cooking tea. We hadn’t seen any shops so we had to resort to emergency rations of tuna and rice.

There was a storm overnight. Scary thunder and lightning and heavy rain, so we snuggled down under our sleeping bags and hoped the tent wouldnt leak.

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44c Beer

Sunday, May 8th, 2011

Day 3 Denneville to Gouville-sur-Mer (click link to view route in new page)

Our usual routine is to get up around 9am, Mike makes a cup of tea, I complain the water tastes funny, so he makes another one out of our bottled water. Then we have a big bowl of cereal with fruit, pack up our tent and stuff and be on the road by about 11am. It’s a perfect lazy way to start the day.

On the road the first priority is to pick up a baguette for lunch and a couple of pastries for afternoon munchies, and either some ham or cheese.

The trick is to get to the shops either before 12 or after 2pm as they shutdown for lunch.

We had another stunning day of flat riding.

At 2pm, after 35kms I decided I had enough. We found a perfect campground right beside the beach. The weather was deliciously warm. It was nice to thaw out after the previous freezing cold days. We grabbed our e-readers and sat on the beach reading for the afternoon and drinking beer we bought for 44c.

We cooked a delicious bacon and mushroom pasta for dinner, served with crusty bread.

We finished the day watching the sun set over the atlantic while sipping our 44c beer.

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Pepe Le Pieux

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Day 2 Le Rozel to LePieux to Denneville (click link to view route in new page)

The day started with a big arsed hill. I moaned and cursed as I pushed my bike up thinking “I’m not sure I wanna do this any more, it’s just too much effort”. As I approahced Mike who was waiting for me at the top, he said ” Look, we have a nice downhill run now, doesn’t that make it worth it”

And he was right. If this is the reward for the uphill slog then it’s definitely worth it. 2 km of sheer downhill bliss, no peddling, wind in our faeces, not a care in the world.

Until the road ended.

“That bloody GPS is a piece of shit”, I exclaimed

“oops, sorry” said Mike.

So we pushed our bikes back up and continued on in silence.

The rest of the day was perfect cycling along quiet country lanes and quaint villages. After only 30kms (yeah my arse was hurting) we decided to stop for the night. We staked out the campground and decided we would be happy to camp here. Then someone had a bright idea to try the next campsite as it was more likely to have a bar and internet.

We cycled 3 kms to the next campsite only to find it was 5 euros more expensive ,they didnt have internet, the bar was closed and they had no toilet seats! We decided to backtrack 3 kms for toilet seats.

For dinner we cooked cajun pork, fried rice and mushrooms.

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Poole – Cherbourg – Le Rozel

Friday, May 6th, 2011

Day 1 in France Cherbourg to Le Rozel

We caught the ferry from Poole to Cherbourg. It was a rough crossing and I was glad I took some kwells and people were vomiting all around us.

Mikes GPS got us out of cherbourg via a big hill which we ended up pushing our bikes up. There were lots of hills coming out of cherbourg and busy narrow roads with large trucks. We turned off and headed for the beach on the quieter roads.

We stopped at a small town but their campsite was a bit dodgy so we decided not to stay there. We headed on another 10 kms and stayed the night at Le Grand Large camping ground. I was really impressed with Mikes ability to ask for things in French, and it was hilarious when they reply to him in French and he can’t understand a thing!

We camped right beside the beach. Huge beaches with lots of sand. too cold here for swimming though – in fact too cold to even stay up and watch the sun set so we seeked the shelther of our tiny tent.

There was not shop or restaurant at the camping ground so luckily we had packed some stuff. We cooked a meal of brown rice and sweet chilli tuna. We forgot to pack plates so we scoffed it out of our sieve! We ate our cereal out of our mugs.