The Plan

The plan for this adventure was to cycle the Eurovelo 1 route from La Rochelle to the French/Spanish border then take the Northern Pilgrim route to Santander. Well that was the plan…

This was the first big adventure, I have done some long weekends and overnighters but nothing like the 10 days I planned to be cycling. This meant a new level of gear on the bike and a newly made frame bag to try and help me take it all. I hadn’t been feeling 100% before the trip started so was worried that I would not be able to do it, but the day of the adventure dawned and for the first time in a while I felt bouncy and happy, so off we go…

Thursday 18/04/2019

Loaded the bike up and did a practise ride to work to ensure it felt right. Was a good thing I did as I had to move some load around to stop the pedals striking the bag and even out the weight. The new frame bag meant I had to move the bottle cages somewhere else on the bike, I decided to try the front forks, as I might just be able to get them when moving. Also new for this trip was the dynamo charging system and lights which Ian had helped me get rigged up to the bike. Everything seems to be be working and was getting power to the phone and lights.

After work, second ride with fully loaded bike, I popped home to grab the last few things mainly the basic food supplies. I was trying the principles I had read about in Tara Alan’s Bike. Camp. Cook. And I was hoping to cook all my meals on the route being more adventurous then pasta or emergency lentils.

Next stop the ferry, I was getting the 2025 ferry from Portsmouth to St Malo. Luckily not my first time getting on a ferry with the bike so wasn’t too nervous about it. There were a lot of cyclists as it was the Easter long weekend, bikes ended up stacked soooo deep! Smooth boarding even with that many people and although the ferry set off a little late it wasn’t a big deal. I had some dinner from the canteen and settled down to watch the harbour slide by with the lights and moon shining. Grabbed a quick shower as I didn’t know when the next one would be available. They were awful and I ended up flooding the shower cabin more then get clean but worth a go… Then made a nest for myself on the floor for sleeping, as why not? No one else seemed to want seats in the row I had and I had all my camping gear. Set an alarm (I love sleep so nearly always need an alarm to stop me dozing) and nodded off for a good nights sleep.

Friday 19/04/2019

Woke and packed up my gear, before grabbing a cup of tea and watching the entry to St Malo. Luckily it was a lovely day and a good view. Docking was slick with a good view of old St Malo and cycling in the ferry port is never as scary as I think it is going to be…

Although the start of the Eurovelo 1 route is not far from St Malo, when planning and plotting the route I decided the distances were just too great for me to be able to do the whole thing in the time that I had available. So the plan was to get down to La Rochelle by train and begin the true pedal pedal pedal action from there. Which due to a slight annoyance/perk of the train and ferry times meant the next train wasn’t due to about lunch time… exploring time it was (after scouting out the train station location… call me paranoid sometimes).

I explored old St Malo on the bike for a while, which was wiggly and cobbled so made for interesting riding. Found a nice cafe near the entrance to old town and had some breakfast, got to love the French pastries and cafe culture! Then abandoning the bike for a little while I set off on foot to explore the walls of old town. (I had asked the cafe and Tourist information to keep an eye on the bike but neither were 100% happy about doing it, not that they should have to but it did make me even more nervous about it). The walk on the walls was beautiful and the sea was so colourful, it would have been nice to have been able to dawdle a little more and explore the sites built off the beach but I was glad to see it and read some of the notice boards (love a good information board). Got back to where I started with the bike just as I had left it. Phew!

Now for the train section of the journey, French trains seem to get to the station really early! This gives plenty of time to get on them and get settled which is nice. I had a change at Nantes, with an hour to kill so went for a little cycle, seems like some really nice to cycle in around the station. Saw the castle and chilled near a water fountain with everyone playing on it. Last train seemed very nice, with good seats but ended up delayed.

I managed to get my first warm showers as a guest! This made the late trains slightly awkward but got there OK and met my host. Headed to his and had the normal chats about adventures, likes and stuff (both Terry Prachett fans :D). He kindly cooked me dinner and we had a drink before exploring a bit.

Saturday 20/04/2019 — Day 1

Whoop whoop first cycling day has come! Later start then I would have liked as I had breakfast with my host… got to say it again I love French pastries! Then the bad part — I needed to find a pharmacy before I set off as I had the warning signs of a UI 🙁 luckily an English speaking pharmacist (thank you everyone that can speak English, I am so bad at languages and admire you every time) got some drugs and head off on my way.

It was a beautiful day and was really glad to be pedalling and finally making my way. I went through a town that was having a kite festival. I liked to see the kites and wished I could have stayed for a little longer but felt like I needed to get some kilometres under my belt. My favourite were the manta-ray style ones.

I had a few accidental detours on my route… long way round the head land anyone? I reached Rochefort. The cycle path around the edge of the city was really pleasant and the frogs were sooooo loud it was amazing. I could see them swimming in the river/marsh sides. I continued cycling round and eventually to came the Port Transbordeur du Martrou which was a cable car/platform over the river. Unfortunately it was undergoing work so I couldn’t ride it and had to take a detour but I really enjoyed seeing the old school tech.

I stopped for lunch at a Navy Museum or historic building of some sort. I had the dish of the day and had no idea what it was, but was fish and not bad. All part of the adventure of eating somewhere I have no language skills!

Day was lovely and sunny but I forgot to put the sun cream on… so surprise surprise sunburn happened! The cycling was good in the afternoon but I was worried about covering the distance I needed for the trip… So I pushed myself quite hard I was kinda aiming for Royan as there was a ferry there. So one massive day of 123km was done! Longest single cycle I have ever done. Also I have wild camped before I decided to use a camp site and would for the rest of the trip to lower the stress levels of the adventure.

The Easter holiday caused me some issues with shops and getting supplies but luckily I had some with me.

Summary

• Distance 123km
• Ascent 930m
• Descent 907m
• Moving time 8hrs 7 mins
• Average Speed 15km/h

Sunday 21/04/19 — Day 2

Second day on the road and I really did not want to get up! I got to sleep way to late for the adventuring. I am not the best at morning normally so after a mammoth cycling day it was worse. So the start was very slow and therefore I didn’t get the ferry I was planning to get. There was a long wait for the ferry and so many cyclists I guess they were out and about enjoy the Easter weekend.

The ferry ride was nice got a little view of the bay but wanted to cover those miles. Riding was easy lots of long straight flat paths mostly through pine trees. The paths were soooo straight! Stopped at a beach for lunch and stuck my feet in the sand as I was starting to get sore points on the balls of my feet. I think a little bit caused by the cleats on my shoes.

Had to hunt a little for a camp site as some on the map were for camper vans only and another wasn’t taking tents until later in the year. But finally managed to find one, which was small and had nice sheltered pitches. The other fun thing was another pair of cycle tourist and I had been hopping each other all day and we ended up at the same camp site. We didn’t chat much but it was fun to see other long distance tourers.

Set up camp showered and had a yummy dinner before chilling out.

Summary

• Distance 93.8km
• Ascent – 659m
• Descent – 643m.
• Moving Time – 5hrs 54mins
• Average Speed – 15.7km/h

Monday 22/04/2019 — Day 3

Again with the trying to get up early and again with the fail… I am just not good at it. I ended up having a cold breakfast having run out of fuel the night before cooking dinner. Oats soaked in water and condensed milk overnight is actually quite yummy throw in some raisins and it makes a good start.

Pine forests were the view of the day today! Was really peaceful but when your navigation instructions go ‘In 14km bare slightly left’ and when you get there the next instruction is ‘In 15km bare slightly right’ you don’t really need to think about anything. But the path was beautiful and completely traffic free. I think it is an old railway line because it is so straight and occasionally would pass the old station buildings which told me what towns I was going through.

I stopped for lunch in a little town called Andernos-les-Bains and found a lovely church and Roman ruins. It was very peaceful and a water fountain which let me refill. Was feeling indecisive about routing did I follow the longer but beautiful Eurovelo route or follow my shorter planned route, phoned Ian to talk about it all but that has to be one of the harder things is always having to make every decision. No chance to share the burden of choice with someone else, but I suppose no one else to worry about if it goes wrong. I kept following my track, which proved a mixed blessing when it took me down a short section which was pure sand! But otherwise wasn’t too bad and I need to keep crunching the kilometre if I wanted to do the trip in the time I had.

I made it to my planned camp site for the evening, which was the coolest one so far! Right next to a lovely lake. The lady running it showed me where a shop was so I could get some food having struggled due to the Easter break. Need to pay attention to each countries holidays as this caught me out a little when I did a mini-tour back from Belgium. She also charged my electronics for me which was great although the dynamo was working well to charge the phone.

Settled down again to a chilled evening.

Summary

• Distance 111km
• Ascent – 641m
• Descent – 640m.
• Moving Time – 6hrs 49mins
• Average Speed – 16.1km/h

Tuesday 23/04/2019 — Day 4

Bad news for my adventure found this morning I had a re-occurance of a Bartholin cyst/abscess 🙁 I had thought it was coming in the day before but the feeling today confirms it. If you don’t know what one is, it comes with a google at your own risk warning as I don’t want to explain more here. The cyst means it is painful and uncomfortable to cycle! Luckily it turns out one of my uni friends, Vincent, lives in Bayonne, which I hadn’t really clicked was right on my route! So I arranged to stay but it made it a much longer distance…

Even with the above I managed to get a reasonable start getting some miles under my belt. The route developed some rolling hills that made the riding a bit more variable even if it stayed really straight. As I was going along I heard some voices behind me who started commenting in English about me being another long distance tourer. So I made a cheeky comment about drafting me all the way and we ended up chatting.

They are a father and son team that try and go cycle touring at least once a year. This years adventure for them was cycling all the way to Valencia! We had lunch together and the place we stopped had no baguettes! Must almost be a national emergency in France 😛 We fell into cycling together and spent most of the day together. It was really fun and the miles went zooming by under the wheel. It was interesting to cycle with other people and hear their stories of riding and how much it made the distance fly by especially in the pine forests with no other traffic to worry about. It was also really nice to have a distraction from the cyst as I was having to take pain killers to try and dull the pain. We ended up going different ways at Bayonne, them to find an Airbnb they had booked and me to find Vincents.

Also the day had generally been fine and not too hot, I got rained on once really badly, blinked and I was soaked. Later in the day the rain seemed to settle in so kept going in it. I was really glad I was heading somewhere I could dry all my clothes. Although still nagging at the back of my brain is how am I going to cope when I have no means of drying clothes and I get everything wet?

Met up with Vincent and he let me into his while he finished work. Was nice to shower and chill out before we headed out for dinner.

So turns out it was the day after Bayonne has a massive celebration so most places Vincent wanted to take me were closed. In the end we went to a place called Cidrerie Ttipia, which is a copy/commercial version of the traditional places you get at apple orchards and the brew master taps giant barrels of cider set in the wall for people to drink from. The menu is set so no need to make any choices and it was all very yummy. It was really nice to chat up with Vincient as it had been a while since I had seen him.

We headed back to his and when we got there found out the washing machine had broken! Thankfully for me after it had finished washing my clothes. Time to crash out for the night!

Summary

• Distance 129km ← new longest day 😀
• Ascent – 859m
• Descent – 863m.
• Moving Time – 7hrs 20mins
• Average Speed – 17.1km/h

Wednesday 24/04/2019

So decided to have a rest day and try and sort out the cyst. Having had them before I knew I needed some antibiotics if I had a hope of being able to keep going and it not get worse. Vincent helped me find some doctors that would see me and I just sat in a waiting room until one could see me. It was an interesting experience to use google translate and pointing to explain the situation. Ultimately the doctor rang her son and we had him on speaker between us. It was embarrassing but so helpful, I felt really sorry for him but really grateful too. Double bad news was I was strongly discouraged from cycling any more, which was gutting as I really wanted to finish my planned route and I hadn’t even made it to the hills/mountains yet which were part of my challenge for this trip. I picked up the drugs that I required and did some ringing around to help me make a decision…

In the end being sensible won out and I decided to stop cycling and get home early. As much as I felt like I was giving up/failing it was important to ensure I didn’t seriously hurt myself and think about being able to do future adventures. I had also already cycle toured for the longer then I ever had before and done the largest distances I had ever done, day after day so a lot to be proud of as well.

Vincent being awesome took a half day and showed me around Bayonne which was awesome and explained a lot of the local history, interesting parallels to the Irish/British conflicts. We also headed to Biarritz for a drink and to see the sea. The weather was coming in so that was fun to watch. Finally he cooked me a yummy dinner.

Thursday 25/04/2019

I rescheduled my ferry earlier as it allowed me to get home sooner and maybe pull back some leave (to use on other adventures 😛 ) So I had an early start to get to Bilbao. But it was an easy trip jumping on the trains with little bits of careful riding in between. I enjoyed seeing some of Spain and visiting if only briefly (I don’t really count it as being there). I made it to the ferry as the only cyclist (big contrast to coming over from UK to France) and chatted to some people in the line before getting on board. Ferry wasn’t too bad, not really glitzy like a cruise liner but not bad. Cabin was big enough for me and beds were comfortable. Really comfortable it turns out, as I ended up sleeping for 13 hours straight, missing dinner. I guess I was tired and fighting an infection didn’t help.

Ian met me at the ferry terminal so all I had to do was cycle out, thankfully. Home safe and sound-ish.

Wrap Up

In the end I had to have my cyst operated on and marsupialised, but I have had no problems since (fingers crossed) and hope to have no more for any future adventures. It was hard to let go of the original plan and listen to my body but it was import to not do any permanent damage.

I really enjoyed the trip and the Eurovelo 1 section that I cycled was amazing! Especially if people want to try touring but aren’t that confident with roads. Trying out all the gear was well worth it and I learnt so new things I needed to fix and some stuff that worked, like the bottle cages on the front forks (but needed/wanted larger bottles)

Looking forward to more adventures 😀