26th September (sunny, hot and windy) 42 km

Our eldest daughter’s birthday today and last night we managed to facebook call her, very quietly, from our pitch black tent.  Modern technology can be so useful when you are away from your loved ones.

Campground for the night

Woke about 7am when the normal stomping, blasting, singing, beeping and every other adjective you can imagine comes into action here. The day had dawned clear and the sun was already showing signs of creeping above the trees to warm our tent. After washing some socks, we sat in the tent discussing options for a small ferry which will take us from Royan, over the Gironde estuary and plonk us on a long stretch of French coastline, famous for its beaches, swimming and surf….yahoo. After a few days of head and cross winds, we are looking forward to a few swims, even though the sea yesterday was around fifteen degrees, when we took a dip in the late afternoon. The most awkward part about this stretch of coast could be lack of campsites and that means power and that means no blog. We’ll see what happens.

Why wouldn't you?

Phil and Elizabeth were late to get up and when they did get up, said they had been quite cold through the night.  It had been very cold and when I checked my phone about 8am it said 10C, but the sky was blue so things should warm up.  Luckily Pete and I have thicker sleeping bags and I also chucked my merino on and we were nice and cosy and slept well.

An impressive 12th century church in
St Palais-sur-mer where our camp was.

We breakfasted and packed the tent up, by which time the sun was shining on the pool.  It looked so inviting that we had to jump in for a swim before setting off about 11.15am.  Had a lovely ride along a quiet road with it’s own cycle path along a very affluent area on the outskirts of Royan.  Cruisy riding along wide promenades delivered us to the inner city.  Unlike most French towns, this didn’t seem to have an old part of town (guess it all got bombed in the war), but the whole city had a lovely relaxed seaside vibe.

Beautiful beaches all the way round to Royan and mostly cycle paths

We found the Super U Express and went in for lunch supplies and by this stage the sun was fierce and the wind was making it’s presence felt again.  So when we spotted a little recess at the side of the supermarket, in the shade, out of the wind, with somewhere to sit and a makeshift table in the form of a stack of wrapped timber, we decided to lunch there.  It was perfect and we enjoyed a delicious lunch of sardines and tomatoes, followed by a nectarine and a coffee and almond cake.

Pete here: Funny what kicks you get from something so simple as a nice lunch on the road. You can keep your fancy meals in your riverside or beachfront resorts (and I know some people think I’m just being a cheap bastard right now) but it’s true and Julia will be the first to agree (even without her arm being twisted up her back).

Who needs five star restaurants?  Sardines and tomatoes never tasted so good!

As we finished packing up, here come Elizabeth and Phil. They went to find a food place as our supermarket had shut for lunch and we met them a few minutes later down by the front. All cycled along to the Ferry terminal and paid five euros each for our crossing across the bay. There were about ten other cycle tourers waiting with us and I got talking to a girl from London. Her and her boyfriend were cycling to Milan, then hopping a plane to Cyprus for three months in a flat, before flying to South America, Colombia to spend time there. There are people travelling constantly and that is half the fun of this experience, you get to touch base with them.

On the ferry

As we rolled onto the ferry, we got talking to an Aussie guy called Shaun, same age as me….twenty nine…..ok ok , fifty nine, and it was his birthday too. He had been a teacher and taken early retirement, then invested his money. Since 2002, he’s been coming to Europe, cycling, every year, usually for three weeks. He spent the short thirty minute trip talking to us and then when Elizabeth and Phil went off to find a hat and sunglasses, he rode with Ju and I for the next five kms, before taking off on his own.  He mentioned running into a 75 year old Swiss guy who was on his way back to Switzerland.  We said, “It wasn’t Hans-Peter was it?”  And he said yes it was – we had met Hans-Peter at the campground right before we got to Nantes – small world.

We continued down the Euro Velo 1 route cycle track until we reached Soulac, which had a beautiful beach, which we couldn’t pass up for a swim. Headed into the water and it was cold, but refreshing on this hot day. Spent some time in the water before probably a fifteen minute sunbathe. Whilst here, we are not going to rush past these gorgeous beaches and if it means we get behind, then so be it. Bet the people who know me never thought they’d hear me say that…!

Soulac has a mini Statue of Liberty.
I know the French gave the Americans their
big one - why this little one is in this town,
I have no idea!

Soulac was a funny town.  You would think perched on this amazing expanse of golden sand that it would be a thriving little community, and maybe it is in summer.  But in autumn it has a sad, neglected feel and it looks very rundown in places.  We spied two big apartment blocks (and they seemed to be the only apartment blocks in town), that had graffiti all over them and their windows smashed in.  There was nobody living in them and we suspect maybe the sand had subsided underneath them and made them unliveable.

Dilapidated apartments

Now that's what I call a beach!!

Amazing cycle paths laid on for us here

Ever since we got off the ferry, the cycling had been amazing.  Flat cycle paths with good surfaces through pine forest past beautiful beaches was the order of the day.  Luckily the forest kept the wind from being too much of an issue as it was a very strong crosswind (offshore) when we were out from the trees.  There looks to be quite strong swells and currents on this coast as the water seems quite churned up with the golden sand.

We heard from Philip and Elizabeth that they had checked into a municipal campground in Montaivert where we arrived about 6pm. Looks a bit rundown, but will do us just fine.  There’s a surf/yoga camp across the road so we feel right at home. Put the tent up and Shaun was there too, along with several other bike tourers.  They were all going into town for a drink and invited us along.  However, going out for a drink in France can be an expensive business, whereas buying your own and bringing it back to the tent, is unbelievably cheap.  Less than half what you would pay in NZ, so the four of us were happy to stay in the now empty camp and have dinner at the picnic table and a few drinks.

Elizabeth had found a free washing machine (which is like gold in cycle touring), so we put a load of washing on and hung it up to see how well it fares overnight.  One of the other cycle tourers plugged into the camp power socket with his adaptor and offered us the use of the power, which we all gratefully accepted.  Have to say, we are doing really well keeping everything charged and the big powerbank we brought with us has been awesome.

The other thing that has been awesome, has been the discovery of 8.6, a Dutch lager, varying in strength from, 8.6 – 11 per cent. Tonight, I decided that two would be the right quantity to offload over a blog and dinner. That was incorrect. By the time I had my shower, toward 9pm, I was literally leaning into the shower walls, just to keep myself upright and the slightest thought that I found  amusing, suddenly turned out to be hilarious  and I caught myself laughing  hysterically.  My bed was a welcome relief.