Cycling in the rain

Gouarec – Pontivy

As before we made good distance along the canal until we came to a large lake that we had to go off route to get around and after the really easy going cycle route (The euro velo 1) we had to go up hill for about two kilometers and it was steep up hill that almost made us stop, when we got to the top we did stop but only because there were no signs to carry on the euro velo 1, we were pretty lost and did the typical lost tourist things like pointing into the distance and scratching heads while shouting at each other until this guy whio was working on his house came over and said “bonjour” us only being in France for four days started spluttering really bad french then ya man says to us “Oh, your english” in a northern english accent and told us to just follow the yellow brick road and it will take us all the way to Pontivy, where we could get to the Decathlon sports shop to buy sporty outdoorsy kind of supplies that were essential…. Bungees and chocolate

By the time we had finished our little bit of retail therapy it was getting dark and cold so we tried to find our way out and back to the canal, needless to say we got it wrong and didn’t notice till we were on the wrong side of Pontivy going along the wrong river, so back again through the town and along the canal (This time the right one ) we managed to go about another 15 kilometers from Pontivy making the days total at just over 60km and we found a nice flat area to camp next to a pair of canal sluice gates, we set up camp pretty fast and even flew the DARE2B flag up in the center, our thoughts were that if we looked more like we were professionals then the less likely we were to get moved on by the gate keepers.

Another early morning start with ice on the insides of the tents, Joe was the first up and went for a wee wander around, where we camped was surrounded by small lakes with lots of wild life living in and around them, while Joe was looking around he noticed a family of otters swimming around in the lake just next to the camp and tired to get down closer to the otters to take a video of them and managed to get himself an early morning dip in the freezing cold water. Sam and Will soon woke up with all the shouting  and got the hot coffee and porridge with chocolate raisins going to warm up before we set off again.

After about a week of cycling we had finally managed to get our heads round the empty villages and ghost towns because of the french lunch breaks… you can always count on the boulangerie/pâtisserie’s being open so thats where we would always end up…. every day along the canal to Nantes

We noticed the closer we got to Nantes that all the canal sluice gate houses got more and more neglected, unlike the ones near Gouarec which were more like postcard cottages. The castles that we passed on the other hand were amazing and a good place to stop and have lunch

The weather had started to get on our nerves by this point, cold is fine…. even really cold is fine, we have the clothing to cope with that but what started to happen was it just rained and the general mood between us was getting pretty bad, it didn’t have to rain much to make us completely soaked because we had jackets that were breathable but not 100% waterproof but as soon as they got wet the breathability stopped and then you just over heat and soak yourself from the inside out and with it still raining as you set up camp, all the way through the night and when you woke up in the morning nothing had dried, yes we really did smell bad. So the next day we started to make our way on the last leg of the Brest a Nantes canal, with a plan to get there by evening time…. that didn’t happen. It rained and it rained and just to make it a bit better the euro velo 1 along the canal started to become more of a mud bath rather than a nice cycle track. The mood of all three of us had become “CRAP” and we were bitching at each other every time we stopped so we decided to take a detour away from the canal and go into the next town we passed and find a super market buffet that we could sit down and eat in a warm dry environment.

Blaine –

We rocked up to a E.Leclerc and it didn’t have a buffet so we just went in and bought loads of cheese, chorizo, crisps, bread, chocolate, wine, armagnac then filled our bags and took the bikes to a car wash and cleaned them down from all the sand and shite that had piled up in the chain and gears. the mood had lifted a bit but we were still in need of a good eating session so we stopped at a picnicking spot just out of town and near the canal, we managed to eat half of the food we had bought for the next week in one sitting but with the cakes and alcohol the mood had become a lot better and we were all talking again. we blazed on for another thirty or so kilometers but it was getting dark and there was no chance of us getting to Nantes that night so we made camp at another picnicking spot and got a call from the hope foundation letting us know that they had got us a possible place to stay in Nantes via couch surfer.com. Will made a impromptu shower hung in a tree with boiled water and a tarp to save us all from seeing his white, white flesh. As w cooked up dinner we drank the wine and finished off the armagnac and went to bed as we were eager to get to Nantes in the morning.

We arrived in Nantes smelling foul and really hungry, we stopped at the first place where the trams crossed the road and tried to get in contact with our couch surfer sponsor Gabriella, it turns out she didn’t speak much english and we spoke bugger all french so the first phone call didn’t really go very well. so while we waited to get back in contact with her again sam had his music playing from his mini rig playing hip hop and we were getting lots of interest from the locals and got talking to a waitress from the cafe/bar next to where we stopped, she soon invited us into the cafe for a coffee as she needed to get back to work, the coffee ended up being lunch and a couple of beers finished off with a cognac. As we sat there at the front of the cafe we were chatting to all the occupants and passers by, one person in particular was a guy called Ronan who said as we turned up “It’s a long way to tipperary”  we asked how he knew we were from Ireland and he said because of the smell, we didn’t argue. He had an art gallery just across from the cafe, a barge on the canal and he invited us over for a coffee if we fancied it later on after our lunch.

When we had finished our food and drinks we were still waiting to hear back from Gabriella about staying at her place for the night so we were just hanging out outside the cafe and Joe said lets go and have a look round and a coffee at Ronan’s place. We parked our bikes outside where we could see them and then were shown round the gallery by Ronan after he had introduced us to his secretary’s who made us the coffee. after having a look round and a good chat we got back in touch with gabriella about staying at her place, as it turned out she could only offer us a floor and no food and it was 20km out of the city, so we turned down the offer and started thinking about a hotel, Ronan over heard us and said that he just had to check and make sure with his wife first but he thought that it would be okay for us to stay at his house if we needed too.

After a couple of beers on the deck of the B’Atelier 10 with a few of the lads from the bar we set off to Ronan’s house to get showered ( We really did stink, we had to open the windows in the room upstairs to move the air ) and drop our stuff off before heading out with Nicolas (a friend we made in the bar ) who was going to take us out to a Irish bar.

Murphy’s on tap and would you believe it… cheaper than in Ireland, so we were well at home. Ronan and his wife Valerie came into the bar and bought us a few drinks then said that we should come with them to a really nice wine bar ( http://le-vin-vivant.fr )and try some real french cuisine, bangers and mash. we were amazed at all the wines on offer and went for a couple of bottles of a nice organic wine and ordered a plate of cheese and meats just to start, then the bangers and mash came…. so simple yet so good, we had really landed on our feet in Nantes with meeting such lovely people who just welcomed us into their home and were showing us a side of Nantes that we would never have seen.

That night we went on to have a wee night cap before home and ended up in the same bar that we first went into, met up with Nicolas and the lads and met a lots more people, one of the guys who was playing the guitar and singing came over and introduced himself to us, his name was Silva was originally from Madagascar and lived here in Nantes working as a dentist, after talking with us over the night he said that he would really like us to come and take some wine from his wine seller and drink it tomorrow on the deck of the B’Atelier 10 (Ronan’s barge) over dinner it came out in conversation that Sam was a chef and I a cook so Ronan said we should have a BBQ the next day and we could all drink Silva’s wine, being drunk Sam and I were really up for the idea.

The next day we all woke up and had rather foggy heads, I reminded Sam about the BBQ that would be happening later this morning, we both cringed and made a start at making ourselves decent then Ronan shouted up the stairs that he would be going to the market in a few minutes. Sam and I ran down and got a quick bit of toast and then got in the car with Ronan and drove to the market.

We were totally amazed at the market, it had everything from dried meats, cheese and honey to clothes and book stalls all under one roof, it reminded me of the english market in cork, only bigger and sorry to say it but better, Sam and I walked around with noses pressed agains the glass counters like small boys in a sweet shop.

We went for monkfish and some really nice sausages, the monkfish was going to be soaked in coconut milk with lime zest and ginger and the sausages were going to be slow cooked in a pan with lots of onions, none of it was too fancy but we both had heads like a hallway with too many creaky doors, we then went and queued up for the  boulangerie to get some bread to go with the sausages and monkfish kebabs, the queue was really long nearly going out of the market but the people behind the counter were fast so it took no time to get our bread, just as we were about to leave the counter the guy behind gave us two of these pastry things that were like pancake mixture deep fried and they were like little pockets of air with crushed candy on top, bloody lovely and we almost queued up again for more.

We met up with Ronan just outside the market at a small cafe/bar place, in France on a sunday pretty much everything is closed apart from the market and corner bars that serve coffee, beer and wine, so we had a half pint as it would be rude not too, it’s customary to do so, so we did and it was lovely, sun shining and everyone out on the street drinking at small tables, what a lovely way to spend a sunday morning.

Ronan drove us back to the barge and we got the BBQ going and everyone started to turn up, we cracked open some beers and started to air the wine while the charcoals were turning white, it wasn’t warm but it was still a nice day, everyone else was complaining at how this time last year they were out in shorts and T-shirts. The cook from the cafe over the road came over and brought a bowl of chips and a big bowl of  ratatouille to go with the sausages and monkfish, a totally surreal day.

On the island of Nantes we found this giant mechanical elephant, it was huge, the picture doesn’t really do it justice.

We left Nantes the next morning and made our way towards Angers, leaving Nantes the sun was shining, not hot because of the wind but still shining bright all the same  so we made quite good distance that day, very uneventful day but the cycling was good, we did get one car swerve towards us blowing its horn and sticking the finger up at me, he didn’t stop so he got away quite lightly.  We set up camp at a place that we didn’t know its name, it had a nice picnic spot and was right next to the loire river with a beautiful view of the town on the other side.

We woke up to high winds and torrential rain… so we didn’t get up for a good while because we didn’t want to take the tents down and pack it all away wet… but after a while we realized it wasn’t going to stop so Sam and I went to the hotel up above and got coffee then we put down the tents and headed over the bridge into the town, the winds were so strong that we were getting blown all over the place and nearly got hit by cars as they went past us. It was windy all day and then started to rain again so we stopped for a quick pint, it may sound like we have been drinking lots but you have to understand that the drinks over in France are all small like hobbit drinks, also we wanted to get rid of all the spare change in our pockets as it was weighing us down. We did leave the bar in the end as the rain had stopped and we ran out of change.

We made it to Angers that evening, well we thought it was Angers but it was a small town on the river side and Angers was about seven kilometers away, we did something that we wouldn’t normally do, we set up camp in a park next to a sports field, and surrounded by houses but it was dry ground and there was also a water supply near by so here was good for tonight and it had a table for cooking dinner on

I cycled into Angers to do some internet in a McD’s but the internet was really poor and the only thing in there i wanted was the coffee so I skyped Katie-jo and then went home (Got back around midnight)

The next morning we set off and it was dry but soon started to rain, we were getting really miffed at all the rain  we were getting especially when everyone said that we would have great weather cycling through France… PAH!

Along the way we came across some pretty good graffiti on the walls of a local youth club so stopped to check it out and look for some more water.

we were pretty determined to get to Saumur so we could camp up for a couple of days for Sam’s birthday but when we got there it was pissing it down with rain and was blowing us all over the place when we crossed the bridge. We went to a McD’s and used the internet but got hungry so got some food… what a mistake that was, the food in there was crap, made us feel ill and cost a fortune, it was still torrential rain outside so we decided that we would take a train to Tours where we would meet his Mum and his brother.

We arrived in Tours and it was getting late, we rolled out of the train station and the place looked like it had been bombed, all the roads were dug up and the tram lines were not working, we managed to book ourselves a hotel room in a hotel called “Mister Bed” ……. ……. ……. …… …. .. . if you ever come across this hotel chain then don’t be tempted by the cheap price, they are pretty rubbish, but they did have free wifi that was crap. It was 7km from the train station and we were soaked through by the time we got there and with all our wet clothes and shoes we stunk the room out pretty quick.

We had bit of a lay in for Sam’s birthday and decided to stay another day so we could go out and goto Decathlon and KFC, we ate so much chicken and free drink that we made ourselves sick then went and got a few beers and a bottle of whiskey for the night while we watched movies in the room on the projector – (along with Sam’s mini rig speaker the mini laser projector was a great idea to bring with us)

We had arranged with Sam’s mum to meet them at a camp site just outside of Tours where they had booked a cabin for us all to stay. We found the place quite easy, it was in a village called something like “village of the damned” but the camp site was nice and we got started straight away on cleaning and drying our clothes, eating food and having a few drinks while chatting about where we were going next and why we wanted to go by train. Meanwhile Sam’s little but not so little brother Geren cooked us all up some great grub. We all talked way into the night and eventually got to sleep (Something that we have been getting less and less these days)

The next day we said our good byes and headed for Tours again, this time to catch the train to Lyon where we would then get another train to Geneva so we could meet up with some friends of ours in Chamonix, all very long winded and a lot of trains but we were fed up with the rain where we were and this was a good way to escape it. \

We managed to book a train ticket to Geneva and then get on the shuttle train to St Pierre and then waited for the train to Lyon, when it arrived it was a double decker train and had no room for bikes…. we said fuck it and pushed our way on and managed to get the bikes on to then be pulled off again by an angry ticket collector shouting french at us…

Down to the ticket office and try and get our money back for the other tickets and then book the same train again but this time one that would take our bikes, it did take a while to do it but we got there in the end, its just we had a ten hour wait between trains from Lyon to Geneva. We finally got our train and even had a very helpful ticket lady to make sure we got on the right one. All long the train tracks the Loire river had burst its banks and the cycle path was about two feet under water so that made us glad we took the train, as we went along we were checking out all the houses next to the train tracks, they were all half house half cave dug out of the rock, so it looked like half a house stuck on the cliff diagonally and then you would just get a window cut into the rock with double glazed glass windows.  Six hours later we arrive in Lyon… It looked just like birmingham… the architecture and the people, a little strange for Sam who wouldn’t let go of his bike or take his eyes off of it.

I treated Sam and Will to a steak dinner and a couple of pints in the mega grill bar place but we soon left as they were closing for the night so we decided to go and find a bar and drink all night until the train to Geneva got here in about eight hours time

Three Surly long haul truckers for sale

We had a mad few days before we left Ireland, getting all our gear sorted for the bikes, packing up our lives into cardboard box’s and trying to spend as much time with our family and loved ones as possible. On the morning of our leaving day all three of us were still doing last minute packing and adjustments to the bikes, so last minute in fact that we were late to our own send off at the Blue haven in Kinsale, we got on the bikes and and rode then for the first time fully loaded with all our gear, the look on each others faces was classic,a look of realization that we had far too much stuff and we couldn’t even pick the bikes up to get them out from Katie-jo’s back yard, thankfully the first leg of our trip was down hill and we all wobbled down the road and we cycled into Kinsale town and up to the Blue haven where family and friends were all waiting as well as the Mayor of Kinsale. As we were already late and it soon became time to leave so we could get to the ferry in time, we made a good start getting out of Kinsale but we wanted to go and see Robbie and his family at the bike shop in Carrigaline and get some photos for the K2K page, there wasn’t enough time to do it if we cycled so we shoved our bikes in to the back of Will’s parents pick up and all got in to Katie-jo’s car and drove to Robbie’s, we made more last minute adjustments and bought some food in the Polish shop next door as all the shops were likely to be closed in France due to it being easter sunday when we made port.   The guys at the Polskie shop came out and gave us a crate of oranges for the trip so we stuffed oranges into every spare bit of space in the panniers and then got on the bikes and cycled to the ferry port where we said our last last good byes and got in the que for the ferry where they staff came over to us and asked if we were the three mad lads setting off on bike to India, we told them that we were they and that gave them a good laugh. We got up onto the top deck of the ferry and went straight to the info desk and tried to blag a cabin for free but the woman behind the desk said that of course we could have a cabin but she would have to charge us for it, so after that nice refusal we went to the next best place and went to the bar and started with three pints of Murphy’s, it was going quite well until the boat entertainment started up and some guy who seriously though a lot more of himself than was due started to sing and tried to pull people out of their seats to dance, we got up and left after we had about nine pints between us and went to the cinema to watch Jack Reacher where we laughed so much at how Tom Cruise made himself look like a tall person, the hysterical laughter might also have been down to the bottle of Jameson’s we drank as we watched the movie, we didn’t have a cabin so the only way we could make bed time seem ok was to not remember when bed time came. We went back to the bar and two guys who were also on a cycle trip came over and started talking to us because they had seen us in the Irish Examiner paper the day before and wanted to ask us if we really hadn’t much love for cycling bikes, we told them that  the title of the article was a little over exaggerated but no we weren’t really that keen on the idea of cycling ten thousand kilometers. We did find a place to sleep in the end, it was a small crawl space on the flaw behind the bill boards and it had a plug socket to charge up the laptop and our phones, we woke up after what seemed to be no time at all to a far too load alarm and got up and found a free shower and stole a load of toilet roll then made our way down to the bikes  and bumped into a French guy who asked us about our trip and why we had all matching clothing, we told him where we were going and he said that if we ran out of money while in France that we should still go into cafe’s and order food but when it came to paying just tell the staff that we had no money but would be prepared to work for our food that we had just eaten, we thought that we would probably pass on that bit of advice and went on down to the bikes and waited until everyone was gone before we set off out of the ferry. When we got out it was still very dark but with a slight hint of blue showing on the horizon and as we cycled out of the ferry port we met up with the two other cyclists who were doing a two week trip around France, they soon overtook us and we didn’t see them again. We were completely buzzing from the idea that we had made it and were finally on the road and doing what we had been planning over the last year and driving our friends and family mad with the constant talk of K2K We made it to Morlaix in good time and were pleased to find that there was a market going on and a bakery open even though it was easter sunday, we stocked up on bread and bought lots of fresh cooked sausages, it was bloody cold and our hands were shaking like mad as we ate our first breakfast in France. After the bite to eat we made our way down into Morlaix and got completely lost because even though we had been planning this trip for over a year we hadn’t really looked at a map of France and didn’t have a clue as to where we were meant to be going, it was uphill and really took it out of us as we were still sweating the Jameson’s out of our system from the not too long ago night before.   after about an hour of going back up hills and winding our way through back streets we found our way the road we were after that would take us though a kind of national park. We did over ten hours of cycling on our first day and only made 47.5km and we were wreaked, we managed to set up a camp hidden behind some trees from the road, I literally put my tent up and blew up my bed then passed out was snoring in my tent, Sam and Will couldn’t believe it but soon followed suit and we all slept and forgot to lock the bikes or even bring our stuff in to the tents. we woke up as it got really cold with the tent doors open and cooked dinner , Pasta and chorizo with cheese (that was going to be the same dinner for the next two weeks) The next day we got up pretty early and took down camp and there was ice all over the place,

we made pretty good milage that day because we camped at the top of a hill and for the first real time we got to freewheel for about twenty minutes, we were trying to get to the Brest a Nantes grand canal because it would be an easy ride along the canal, it being flat with hardly any hills. We made it to the canal and managed to do nearly eighty kilometers in a day, we set up camp at a picnic spot alongside the canal and had a great sleep despite the cold, today we only had to cycle about twenty five kilometers down the canal to a place called Gouarec where we were to meet a guy Called Graham who said we could stay at his place for a night, clean our clothes, shower and he even cooked us dinner. We got to Gouarec at the wrong time because France closes at twelve for two and a half hours, we can’t get used to it and keep having to wait outside supermarkets until they open. The only shop open was “The UK food shop” so wee went in and got some Guinness and malt cake and got talking to the local english population of Gouarec, asking them if they knew of a Graham and one of the women in the shop knew who we were talking about and because he lived up near her, she gave us directions to Grahams place and we left the village of Gouarec and went over the bridge and round the corner to find a bloody great big long monster of a hill that completely trounced us because we had been getting soft from the easy cycling along the canal. We got to Grahams and were totally welcomed into his house by him and his dog Jess, we had a little bit of a chat then he showed us the barn where we could leave the bikes then he took us into his house where he continued to show us round and show us the spare room we could use for the night then he left us to go to the shops so he could get us our dinner for the night, we all got cleaned up and put on some smart clothes and then all sat down for dinner where Graham told us tales from his travels before he moved to France and gave us great advice about always making sure you have a beer with your dinner to make sure you don’t get ill and not to eat salads when you are out in the far east because quite often they are washed with unclean water, we took this advice to heart and made it the K2K motto – Drink a beer at every meal and don’t eat salads. Graham was and is a great bloke and a total gentleman with fantastic stories and tales to tell, we are all very grateful for our stay at his house 

K2K featured in the The Cork Independent

We have been in the paper again today and everything seems to be coming along nicely.

More posts to follow shortly…only 2 months to go!