Day 3 -4 of Tour: Roscoff France to Redon

Day 03: Sunday 07th June 2015  -  Roscoff to Pontivy

Today's Ks': 177  Total for Trip: 239.22 ks'

sunrise from ship

05:00 The automatic alarm on the radio kicks in and repeats to make sure you rise and shine for the day ahead and berthing into port for 07:00. This wasn't a problem for me as I was half asleep anyway, so up and Adam and got ready. Decided not to have breakfast on board, that I'd have it in Roscoff instead. The day looked like it was going to be a great one.

As I was leaving the ship, the Swiss girl and I decided to have breakfast before she hopped on the train to gain a few hundred kilometres, as she was stuck for time. We cycled into town and then my first experience of the French pâtisserie where I sampled their local delicacy, a little bread made with sugur and butter, and it was heaven....yum yum :-) After breakfast I said goodbye and now I was  ready to begin the Euro Velo route 1 or as the French call their section La Vélodyssée. 

Morlaix

So the Beast (my bike) and I headed for our first destination Morlaix. I didn't get on the velo for this section bur followed the roads where I eventually met up with the father and son from the ferry and we travelled together to Morlaix . As we travelled along their was a few kilometres of road closed before the town due to some race being on but we never figured out what kind, as the road was filled with cyclists, runners, walkers, roller bladders, long boards and skateboards and everything else you can think of that hasn't an engine.

Everyone said hello to us and then we saw Morlaix with its beautiful viaduct crossing above the town.....just magnificent.

Here we separated as they were going around Brittany, so I headed for Carhaix but my gps didn't exactly help me and I took a wrong turn and of course I was directed up this mother of a hill to set me right. It was to steep for me to cycle so I pushed and even at that I had to stop twice to get my breath. Got to the top and cycled a little only for the gps to say off course pointing me back down the hill and this was to repeat again when eventually I spotted a little pathway near top of hill and the gps liked this.......yes I was off and before long I was on the trails

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The trails were to change to dense forest trails to everything in-between and for a good few kilometres out of Morlaix there was a a rising gradient . Maybe another day without the gear on the bike it mightn't be as bad.

There was joggers and walkers on the early part but then that fizzled out to the odd touring cyclist and I was alone to contemplate my thoughts. After Carhaix my next main destination was Pontivy.. In Côtes d’Armor, the trail follows the canal. 

I can't remember how long I was on the canal at this section but it was beautiful before heading away from canal again. On one on the trails you head down this STEEP decline to Guerlédan dam and I love hills but I was literally stuck on breaks and barely moving going down here. Then we were back on the canal with all the lock keepers houses scattered every now and then. Now there's one lasting memory that I have of France and I'll never forget and that is that France shops shuts down on Sundays

pic: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/12/france-sunday-trading-debate

This was to impact me hard by mid afternoon when I ran out of water and food. I was so thirsty I was actually parched and eventually I spotted an elderly couple leaving one of the lock houses.....where I begged "L'eau, l'eau, s'il vous plaît". She filled my one and half litre bottle which I knocked back in one go. With that she refilled it and took my other bottle too. I thanked them and was grateful for their help. Still hungry but no longer thirsty I headed for Pontivy and arriving around seven or eight.....I couldn't find anywhere to get food.

Deciding I'd better find a place to camp I headed out of town and then a miracle happened. There before my eyes was a pizza van.....yes I'm saved. Now bear in mind it would probably take me a year to starve as I've enough reserves stored to last that long. I ate a whole margarita pizza and it was divine.

Continuing out of town for about three kilometres I found a crop field for my first ever night of wild camping (stealth camping) and indeed my first night on my own camping full stop. The trick about this kind of camping is to be discrete and blend in. Hmmmm I was screwed unless I could find a maize crop as I wore a bright yellow helmet, with a yellow Cookie Monster jersey and just to be sure my panniers had yellow reflective covers on them........discrete or what?

I quickly got myself to a corner of the field and set up tent asap so that I wouldn't be spotted. The good thing was no dilemma with tent like the first day....it went up perfect.

Now all I had to do was survive the night alive and hope no marauding biker gang was around looking for lone cyclists camping alone. 

As tired as I was, I barely slept as I was listening to every noise outside. Obviously I survived but it was a tough night plus my ass hurt as I was wearing an compression shorts under my bibs and with all the sweating I got a bad rash. So not only was it a long night, I also had an ass like a Japanese flag....white on the outside with a red middle :-) Oh the joys of cycling

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Day 04: Monday 08th June 2015   -  Pontivy to Redon

Today's Ks': 117  Total for Trip: 356.22 ks'

Woke up early tired but had to quickly pack up camp and remove ALL evidence I was there. Off I headed back into Pontivy dumping my rubbish in bin before returning to cycle path. It was a flat day and windy in sports but it started off well with the canal track tarmaced and a break from the trails.

but yo do have to watch out for the occasional obstacle

I was flying this morning meeting the odd tourist cyclist and eventually connecting up with a father and his son who were credit card touring on their racers (paying for everything by card and staying in hotels and carry hardly anything). I asked his 20+ son how did they survive some of the trails yesterday and they had decided to skip them. 

Todays view of the day was that in Josselin.....the amazing castle....wow !

 Today also I had one of my funniest interactions. As I said above my ass was extremely sore from a sweat rash so when I spotted a chemist I headed in to ask for cream.....the server with no English and me with no French. I wanted baby rash cream and with a few "it's a move, it's a book" actions and a lot of laughing, I came out happy and I'm sure she's still laughing about a bald red headed man in a yellow Cookie Monster jersey looking for cream for his ass :-)

After my experience of yesterday I now carried 3 by one and a half litres water at all times and a pack of rolls and tinned fish so no problems like that. In fact the day was going great until about 40k from Redon when the surface changed to a sandy type substance. At this stage I was back with the two English guys but I had to leave them off as the weight of the bike was just tough with the surface and I was going nowhere fast. Actually that was one thing I learned on the trip. I had trained on main roads and had averaged 18-20 kph but on the tour I was only managing 13-15 and an odd time only 10k. Once I accepted this the tour was grand, as I could only go a fast as I could on that day

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Taking my time I reached Redon and decided to look for somewhere to stay. Spotting a municipal camp site I headed for that, only to discover it was closed this time of year but luckily for me there was a little lane way running down the side of it so I set up camp there and headed for food....again only finding a pizza outlet. I decided that I wasn't going to get caught by siesta any more and that I would eat at lunch time too. No pizza, nuggets and wedges tonight.

After eating although early I needed to sleep as hadn't had proper sleep in days. I didn't care if a marauding biker gang was about or not, once they closed tent I was fine. Within a few minutes I was out for the count and ready to begin a new day.

The story continues .............

Keep Smiling :-)