Saturday 21st July
La Charité-sur-Loire to Gannary-sur-Loire: 4 hours 32 minutes, 87km

“I slept in late today, which however unintentional, seemed to be the right thing to do. Despite the long haul yesterday, my legs felt surprising fresh.

I made my way into town and picked up a breakfast of bread and pastries from an open-air market. In the street there was an African dance performance going on, which made me think of back home, in particular the water front in Cape Town.

The day was as hot as ever, and putting on sun cream I began my journey. After many hours in the saddle, I have managed to get the long sought-after cyclist tan. The legs are certainly the funniest sight as there is a clear line from where my lycra cycle shorts end and exposed skin begins.

So if you want to lose weight, get a weird tan and have an awesome holiday, then cycle touring just might be for you.

The Eurovelo signage had abandoned me and so I stuck to the D roads and hopped between river side towns. Just a note, cycling is a very enjoyable part of the day. I don’t find it a chore, but rather look forward to it and almost don’t want to stop (except if I have fig bread in my panniers – see below)

My highlight of the day was sitting on a shaded river bank eating a loaf of fig bread (it’s just bread with figs embedded in it).

I found a nice shady spot to pitch my tent at the campsite. Had a luke warm shower and charged my phone in the bathroom. They charged me €10, which is almost double all the other sites I’ve stayed at! And the others all had hot water.”

Matt Krug

Read all of Matt’s posts on his website. All of the posts about Matt on CyclingEurope.org can be found here.