7th September (cloudy morning, sunny and hot afternoon) 34 km

I met Dad on his way back from the toilets last night, whilst I was headed there. He was freezing cold and couldn’t get warm. The temperature had dropped last night, even Julia, the little oven, said so. However, later on this morning while cycling, he tells me that he just slept in his boxers… what the..?

The trick is to make sure that if you go to sleep in a tent, with minimal gear on, that you know exactly where your warm stuff is, save freezing to death. He had hardly slept and today we were thinking about getting to Amboise, 26kms away and then possibly trying to ride another 20km round trip to visit Chenonceau Chateau. Today, with that news early on, we were always up against it.

Leaving Camp Torture.....I mean Tortue

We’d woken at 7.20am and gotten started on breakfast. Dad was slow this morning and I was a bit concerned what the day may bring. By the time we’d packed up the tents and were ready to roll, it was 10.10am. Began nicely, with some lovely scenery on nice tracks, then we arrived at Chaumont-Sur-Loire, a beautiful chateau up on the hills overlooking the river.

Parked the bikes at the start of the hill, but had missed seeing the ticket office, which could have saved us a trip up the hill. However, up we go and up.

Chaumont sur Loire Chateau taunts us from her lofty position - but 30 NZ each to get in we thought was a bit much.

Arrived at the top only to find that they were charging 18 Euros each. I wanted to see the bloody castle, not take ownership of it. Plus I’m a tight git and we’ve seen so many bloody palaces and what not over the years, that I really didn’t need to see how some rich froggie, lorded it over the common folk down in the village below. I knew it must have been too much though, when even the good lady wife declined the admission fee.

Jimmy and Peter with Chaumont-sur-Loire above

So down the hill we trudged, the only regret was not being able to see any of the place to photograph. Back at the bikes we headed along the Loire, before ominously, the road turned inland away from the river. We’d just walked for forty five minutes and now a rather large hill appeared. Dad did his best but had to concede and we walked up together, Ju having been in front. From here things got worse as the inclines and hills kept on coming. By the time we reached the outskirts of Amboise, thirty kilometres from our last camp, Dad was buggered, to the extent where, little decisions weren’t being made, or timing was wrong, basically it was becoming dangerous.

A nice little picnic spot

Thank goodness we’d reached Amboise because he couldn’t have gone further. Bought some lunch at a shop and walked/cycled to the campground which was in the middle of the river on a small island. Didn’t notice the reception area to book in until after we’d gone through the gates. Whilst Ju and Dad carried on down this massive camp, I turned around to book in. The woman on reception was not well pleased that we had followed a van in through the gates, even though I apologised.

No shade in sight and 28C

Aaah, shade at last - and so pretty.

One skinny tree for a bit of shade.

When she asked me for identification and I told her Julia had it in her front bag, you’d have thought I’d stolen the Mona Lisa and looking at the sour look on her face, she was doing a pretty good imitation of the sour bitch. I told her Julia was inside so I couldn’t get the passport, but I would come back with it. Until then I would give her any details she needed. “Mais non” she said sternly rolling her eyes. Well we have a stalemate, I can’t get the details you want if my wife and father are inside and can’t get out and you won’t let me back inside. Realising that was the case, she reluctantly took my details and we were granted access.

By now it was  3.30pm and we were starved, so first thing was to fill bellies, renew energy and erect the tent in the boiling hot sun on, once again, a site with very little grass. Not as hard as the previous nights however. Tents up, Julia and Dad off to their respective cleansing areas whilst I wrote some of the blog.

Ju here – well Pete must have really peeved off the woman in reception because we got sent to the equivalent of Vladivostock in camping terms.  She couldn’t have put us any further away from reception and at a campsite pretty devoid of grass, we got the brownest, sandiest plot with the most potholes in the vicinity.  Jimmy and I suggested we just set up in the plot next door but Pete was worried the gestapo might come and move us on.  There was also zero shade and it was now a stinking hot day, even though by the time we finished “lunch” it was 5pm.  So after reluctantly putting up the tents and showering, Pete and I went for a little tiki tour of Amboise, trying to find wifi capable of loading photos as the campground wifi was not up to the task.

The beautiful town of Amboise

Balloon flights are very popular round here and this would be a cool way to see the chateaux.

We failed in that task but got some lovely photos and grabbed some sandwiches and ice-cream for a late dinner, which we took back to Jimmy at the campground.
Then we went back to see if Amboise was lit up at night.....and it was!