Tjs recovery ride 5. The low countries and France

I’m back from my Southern Road trip but it’s nothing compared to yours TJ.
Will you be back in Edinburgh mid-September?

I’m watching your progress with interest, TJ. There’s a good chance I’ll be free and the sun will be shining by the end of the week. I can train and bike to intersect your route in a few hours pretty much anywhere from Bordeaux on. There’s a TER which stops at regular intervals. The only doubt is whether I’ll be in any state to get on a bike after the building work I’m doing this week.

From Royan the EV1 is close to but rarely on the coast, it runs through pine forests behind the dunes. I find it bumpy and demoralising. There are alternatives further inland or a long way inland. There’s a railway trail into Bordeaux from Lacanau if you want to visit Bordeaux as others have suggested but don’t fancy the vélo route down the right bank of the Garonne from Royan. There are more cycles routes than on the weserradweg map in Gironde:

I mentioned the compostelle bike route along the Spanish north coast. This one is doable on a touring bike, it will probably mean some pushing but no carrying.

https://es.wikiloc.com/rutas-cicloturismo/camino-del-norte-en-bici-irun-santiago-102429314

A bientôt. ;)

Mrvovershhot. Probably end sept.

Edukator. We shall see what happens. I need a ponder about routes. Im windering about the areas that had fires as well

The section around the Teste de Buch is closed but you can avoid it by going through Sanguinet, which you’d have probably done anyhow given your use of Strava lines. ;)

The closed section:

https://www.lavelodyssee.com/actualites/incendies-sur-la-velodyssee

Loving this thread. Would love to do something like this one day, maybe when the kids have left home….

It feels good not to be packing up and moving on today. I am getting tired. Only 2 or 3 weeks to go.

Just been trying to sort out the logistics of meeting the folk i want to meet. One lives near Bilbao. One is coming over to walk part of the compostella and two are over on a motorbike tour. Looks like it can be done and i basically have a week in hand

maybe when the kids have left home….

We did lots of long distance cycle tours with junior, for example Paris to Copenhagen and return to Metz when he was 9. He walked from Hendaye to Gijon with us at 17 and caught the bus home leaving us to continue.

Of the cycle tours and walks I’ve done, walking from home to Compostelle is the one I’d most like to do again – for a fourth time.

My lad would be up for it, but my daughter, not so much….

Yeah kids are people, they vary. I’d have dearly loved to do a cycle tour or long walk when I was a kid (same as now) but my parents wouldn’t have planned such a thing and my sister would have hated it. My kids now wouldn’t enjoy it at all.

Things you dont think of with a long tour

My brand new before I set off ordinary shorts worn over the top of my lycra are wearing out. The arse is getting thin

My thermarest mattress was stinking and had to be washed

Fresh food needs buying daily as it goes off in rhe heat. Next time maybe an ebike and a coolbox🙄🤣 i used a cool box on a canoe trip in france and it was great but another few kilos

😉

Sorry folks i have nowt for you today. A rest day resting and a supply run with a short mooch around the town. No pics.

I know im useless🙄😎🤣

Sounds great way of passing a day.

not even a croissant? :(

we do need a list of things to bring on a tour over 2 weeks as I was thinking about that today.  Nail scissors is on the list, nails grow at an incredible rate when away from home.  Just need a lightweight drilled out set

Croissants an pain au chocolate for berkkie. Still warm and lovely

Up and away sharp this morning a d maki g good miles I’ll be in Royan soon. Time for another ferry.

Duneland estuarys and forest again this morning

Perfect timing for the ferry 😎

Why are you wearing shorts over lycra anyway? You’re in mainland Europe: cast off that fragile UK masculinity and wear what you like :)

Public decency.

Lunch disaster. What i thought was a nice bit of cheese turned out to be tasteless rubber.

Dont forget that pain au chocolat become chocolatine in the south west.

Ta for that. It confused me this morning

Lunch disaster. What i thought was a nice bit of cheese turned out to be tasteless rubber.

Quel fromage!?

Are you sure it wasn’t an inner tube?

🙃

Just had a lovely peach for afternoon tea

Quel fromage!?

Un dommage!

Montalivet for tonight in a camping municipale. I had forgotten about camping on sand! I do hope we dont get a gale as the tent will blow down and the ruddy sand gets everywhere.

Last night i was camped under an oak which dropped acorns on my tent in the night. Tonight its a huge pine with cones like pineapples.

No chips on site nor beer. Boooooo. Towns only 5 mins away

Royan is a place we spent a fortnight, during school holidays, mid 1970’s. There was a swarm of ladybirds that year.

Are they French fries TJ, or proper chunky British stylee chips?

French fries but with mayo so thats ok

At the rate you’re going I’m not going to be free to meet up, TJ. The MTB club (Madame is president) is out on Saturday and doing a rando in Monein with wine tasting at feed stations on Sunday. I’ll keep following the thread with interest though.

Tomorrow you may find yourself on the “piste allemande” at some point. It’s a concrete road built to link all the Atlantic wall fortifications. I can’t remember if Vélodyssée takes it but I do each time I go up or down that part of the coast.

You’re doing a good job finding nice campsites, are you using an app? I use the info-camping site.

Just google maps and read the reviews

Shame if you cant meet up. Im gonna take it easy the next couple of days.

Ta for the route tips

Ive been looking at maps and trying to co ordinate with my pals. Looks like i need to be in agilla de campoo on the 17th then estella on the 20th. Dunno if the logistics will work. Might have to hire a scooter somewhere around estella to do the run to aguilla and back. Pal I’m meeting in estella is the one im going to walk for a few days with. Then home

Im tired today. I think cumulative fatigue is building. Mind you best part of 50 miles again today

Git a puncture today. Swapped in my last unpunctured tube. 250m later a bike shop selling spares so i could get some new tubes

Ladybird swarm in mid 70s! I was there on the beach it was weird and slightly scary. Millions of ladybirds like a locust swarm but…..

Anyway, I remain envious of the adventure.

Have you got that the right way around, Agilla de Campo is after Estella?

Agilla de Campoo in 17 days should be on. There’s a lot of climbing once you’re over the border pretty much whichever way you go but it’s 40kms a day-ish, I reckon I could walk it in the time you have, it was about 9 days walk from St Jean de Luz to Santander on el Camino del Norte.

You then go back to Estella which is odd. The easiest route will be down to Burgos and then reverse along the Camino Francès bike route – perhaps 260km of hilly but not mountainous terrain in three days, possible.

I can’t remember much about Estella apart from the free wine tap for pilgrims at the local wine co-op.

Edit: a word of warning, once you start walking along el Camino it’s very hard to stop, and whatever else you had planned may suddenly seem inconsequential so you just keep walking. ;)

I think I’ll go to estella and dump my bike and kit with my pal who lives there and then go by scooter to aguilla to meet the other pals who are on holiday. Back to estella and then go walking. None of this makes ant sense really does it?😎🤣🙄

**** pics not working again

Lunch disaster. What i thought was a nice bit of cheese turned out to be tasteless rubber.

Cant be having that, not in Europe. They should have a wide range of quality cheeses over there.

I’ve just been spending freely on a few sample pieces – Truffle trove..Vintage cheddar with a lot of black truffle through it.(From Snowdonia) Cornish Yarg, and Jumi Aarewasser.(From Switzerland).

Croissants and juice on the beach for second breakfast

Yum