Tuesday July 12, 2022, 72 km (45 miles) – Total so far: 1,307 km (812 miles)
We left camp at 9am and started the day riding alongside the river. We saw a lady walking her dog while riding her bike. His lead was strapped onto the bike and he obediently ran alongside. Then she stopped by the river, unleashed the dog, he swam 2 laps of the river width, then back on the bike. He was a very well behaved doggie. We’ve noticed dogs in France are quite well behaved. I think they are used to cycle tourists, but their owners are good too, just a quick point and the dog stops where they’re told.
I’ve been 2 days now without eating a pastry. I’m trying to eat healthier so at the supermarket I bought a chicken wrap for a snack, much to Mike’s disgust. And a baguette and tin of tuna for lunch.
We reached the town of Dole and were going to go to Decathlon to get some camping gas, but it was up a hill and we decided not to. We stopped and double checked which way to go when a cycle tourist whizzed by us towards the campground. I suggested we stop for the day at the campground and visit the town, but Mike wanted to keep moving.
After our short break to double check the direction, we’re on our way again. A little while later we’re cruising along the cycle path and when we saw a cycle tourer trying to get his bike down some very steep steps. It was the same guy who went whizzing past us obviously having gone the wrong way. I felt a bit guilty as we may have been blocking the sign while we were trying to figure out which way to go.
We found an amazing spot for lunch overlooking the river, and made our tuna baguette. After lunch we went to continue our ride along the river but there was a route barred sign in 700 metres and a diversion was sending us inland on roads.
Mike went to check it out but there was nothing barring the route at that distance so we decided to continue alongside the river. It was so beautiful, and I congratulated Mike on being daring and taking this route. After 2km we saw another route barred sign and this was in 5000 metres.
Mike then decided we would backtrack, not wanting to ride 5kms and find we get stuck. As we turned back, whizzy cyclist came along. Remember him, missing signs and carrying his bike down steps? Well he went whizzing down the route barred way. We hope he can make it through, but we’re not taking that chance.
When we got back to the route barred sign it said 7000 metres not 700! We hadn’t read it properly either!
It was quite a big diversion and when we got to the other end of it, there was no way through so I felt sorry for whizzy guy. He’s staying at the same camp as us so maybe I’ll ask him about his day.
After that we got back onto the nice river paths. And then, blocking our way, was a big scary snake. It had sprawled itself across the path showing no sign of moving. Mike made a move to try and cycle past it and I had to stop him. As you’ll see in a future video, Mike has no snake sense.
I said we should just stay put and hope he moves. Maybe we could make some noise to prompt it off the path. After a few minutes it made its move and slithered back into the bushes. I got a video of it but you’ll have to wait until it’s out on YouTube.
We are now in a campsite with a river beach. It’s not the nicest of places to camp, the grass is very long and something kept biting my ankles. No sign of snakes though so that’s a bonus.
You can follow our journey on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP03_iOV9QrtahRxRPBTVB9ZTNOmdiznv
