Itโs been a good day on the bikeโฆ and as I write this, itโs not quite over. At 5:30pm there remains about 15km (and a train and a ferry) to ride. All will become clear. With no convivial breakfast on offer at last nightโs campsite as there had been back in Gouarec courtesy of Geoff and his team, I was the first off the site at around 8am.
I was up early this morning (when am I not up early in a tent? Iโve said this many times before but for me itโs not a case of โwaking upโ when Iโm camping itโs a case of when to stop trying to make an effort to get back to sleepโฆ) and was packed by 8am. My official campsite advisor Tim Sanders (who until only a few minutes ago was my โunofficialโ campsite advisor but as nobody else has offered their services, Iโve upgraded him to the honorary post; itโll give him something to chat to Ed Pratt about the next time they meet at their local Park Run in Somerset. Anyway, back to the pointโฆ) โฆMy official campsite advisor Tim Sanders messaged at 8:05 asking โHave you met Geoff?โ
Today was planned to be a short cycle of 50km. In ended up being the second longest cycle yet at 98km. If nothing else, it will work wonders on the daily average which had dipped down to 75km. I need to get it back up to 80km+ to be in with a realistic chance of making it back to Rotterdam before the return ferry sets off on September 3rd.
According to the birdโs eye view of Morlaix in the image below, thatโs the motto of the town. Original, no? Itโs been a hot day so far, despite Brittany being the cold corner of the map of France on last nightโs TV forecast. I’ve returned to the hotel for a siestaโฆ Iโll head back out soon for anothercwander. Thereโs a festival of all things Breton taking place in Place Allende this afternoon so Iโll perhaps update this later. In the meantime, note that episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast was published this morning – part 4 of my โGrand Tourโ series – so if you have 55 minutes to spaceโฆ All the links can be found by navigating over to the podcast page of the website.
The Cycling Europe Podcast continues to follow Andrew Sykes as he cycles on his โGrand Tourโ of Europe. In this fourth part of the โGrand Tourโ series, we follow Andrewโs progress as he rejoins the Velomaritime near Mont-Saint-Michel and cycles west along the route as far as Morlaix in Brittany. This section of his cycle sees him encounter hills for the first time since leaving Rotterdam – he even experiences his first โMercedes momentโ – but he still has plenty of time and energy remaining to explore the places he visits and chat with the people he meets in one of Franceโs most popular holiday regions. The music is by Rob Ainsley.
Finally writing this upโฆ Not many will read this (as the post was published last night without any text) but it will, at least, be an aide-memoire when I later use these notes to write a book. In a way the โMercedes afternoonโ I had experienced on the previous day continued until the following morning. Yes, it was a cheap, municipal campsite but it was packed to the rafters with screaming children. One particular specimen gets his / her starring role in episode 055 of The Cycling Europe Podcast which has now been published.
