Well, Unbeleivable! Having done extra kms to make up for lost time yesterday, and to get La Rochelle in reach for today. I get to the campsite last night, and could not find any available hotels in La Rochelle. Further investigation found that there is some sort of boating thing going on this weekend in that town and all the hotels are booked up! So much for my rest day off there then. However, the town next to it, called Rochefort had a hotel. So I pitched in there.
Interestingly by staying at Rochefort has changed the whole route up north from there. As La Rochelle was actually a slight detour. The reason for going there was to meet up with some friends, and also because its a nice place. However my friends have car so they can come meet me in Rochefort and then we can drive to La Rochelle tomorrow!
Also interestingly, Rochefort is nearer. So that made today a real easy one!
Got packed up, and headed north to Le Verdon, where I then needed to catch a short ferry crossing over to Royan. It was actually really nice to do that. Made today a real different day. I was suprised at how big this ferry was. It was like doing a channel crossing! But that is to come soon! This short ferry and the ferry to Portsmouth will be the only times on route where I advance without the use of pedal power. To avoid this ferry would have incurred a huge detour taking an extra day.
Once off at Royan, it was then just a relativly short 40km cycle to Rochefort, where I got checked into the hotel. Really short day as far as cycling goes!
Getting to Royan has also marked the end of the South of France, and now I'm in central France! France is a shorter country as I head north rather than north east as I was in Spain.
The road into Rochefort was no fun, suddenly going into a dual carriageway with cars whizzing past at motorway speeds - and no hard shoulder! Then a huge bridge over the river, which gave a nice view!
This is the big news. I now stand approximetly 450km from Caen, where I will catch the ferry to Portsmouth. Which I can do in four days. Tomorrow is a rest day, and the last rest day before I go for the blitz and get myself to the UK. I have booked and commited myself to Caen to Portsmouth overnight ferry on Thursday. I have also commited myself to then using the Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning to steam up the UK and arrive at my destination on Sunday 26th September at 3pm. All of that is going to involve some long cycling days and putting in extra miles, with no more rest days after tomorrow. 7 Days of solid cycling on top of what I have already done to push myself to the finish line.
But I have to push myself to Caen by Thursday night. I do not have time for punctures, detours or any other problems. It will be go go go go to make that ferry to the UK.
Click Here for the Facebook Event page for the arrival!
Exciting times lay ahead, but tomorrow I look forward to meeting my friends and having a relaxing day.
| Todays stats | |
|---|---|
| Start | Lillan.10:00 |
| End | Rochefort.15:30 |
| Saddle Time | 3 hr 01 min 15 sec. |
| Distance travelled | 54.69km |
| Average Speed | 18.1kph |
| Max speed | 38.8km |
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