Its the final countdown

Now there is a good name for a song !

Then there was two. With C & S staying over at La Motte, we got dressed into day wear which was stood up on its own in the corner of the room, humming away to itself and set off into near darkness at 05:30 for the final leg into St Malo. Our desire to get back to some home comforts such as the car, bed and most of all, my television was greater than a bit more kip.

The wind had largely died down and what was left came from the north east so it was behind us for a while enabling us to fly along. We did the 52 km’s in no time and arrived at the ferry terminal at 08:00 (that’s 07:00 your time – just shows you how keen we are to get back to family and friends now) and had to hang about for a couple of hours. As a result, I took the opportunity to be fleeced a final time by paying 6 Euros for two thimbles of dodgy French coffee !

The final mileage was 1100 km’s although the speedo only showed 1050 as I forgot to put it on one day in the Spanish mountains.



Anyway, onto the ferry, into the cabin, showered and confused the evening wear by putting it on at 11:00 in the morning. Then spent the day on the ferry growling at the wall to wall blue sky with not a cloud to be seen. Not bitter at all really !

One upside of the glorious weather is that the sea is flat calm so none of the vomit inducing swell we suffered on the way down to Santander. It is hard enough trying to look cool in a daffodil yellow jacket and large plastic hat without having to stick my head down a toilet !!



Anyway the nice weather soon disappeared as we approached the UK and I was delighted to see a massive rain cloud dumping its load on bits of Hampshire as we approached. Share my pain you lot !

When leaving the ferry, a fellow cyclist lady we had met during the crossing gave Mrs B 20 Euros to add to our fund which was a wonderful surprise.

Getting out of the dockyard was a bit of a challenge but managed to find the Mum & Dad taxi service after cycling about a bit and then the trip was finally over !



Needless to say, the weather welcomed us with another downpour but did I care ? Not a bit because I was IN A CAR !!!!! don't ever take these machines for granted, they are absolutely brilliant.




They get you where you want to go, fast, dry in rain, cool in hot weather, up hills without no extra effort on your part and can carry loads of stuff - what more is there ?

We got home to a wonderful welcome with the girls having made their famous lemon sponge cake and we even had my favourite Auntie Betty in attendance so a great time was had by all. Despite sterling service over the previous two weeks both day and evening wear were duly dispatched to the washing basket without a second thought and after well deserved ablutions, we had an entire wardrobe to choose from !!! Oh dear, the decisions of what to wear are soooo tough.




Anyway sponsors, that is your lot and thank you all for your contributions, the comments and encouragement. They really did help us get through some of the more "epic" times during the past couple of weeks. This journal was done to just keep family and friends informed of our progress but did develop into a bit more than that. I hope you enjoyed it and if you have not yet got around to sponsoring us yet, if you type this into your computer - http://www.justgiving.com/Anne-Barratt

you can do it now as this Cancer thing is really not very nice !

I will do a wash up entry over the next couple of weeks and also add photographs and text to fill out the bits that are missing.

I've got wind !...... and rain....and cold

Apologies, apologies, apologies, for not posting a blog last night to cover our trip from Chateaubriand to La Motte (just south of Ponterson) but we stayed in the back of beyond overnight in Chris and Shirley’s holiday home which is without wifi and my allotted amount of mobile broadband for the phone had run out.

So for those forlorn souls who spent the evening refreshing their browser in the vain attempt to force a blog update onto your computer screen, wait not longer as here it is.

N.B. The holiday cottage is available to let at outrageous cost, but if you want to expose yourself as a cheapskate, then a deal could probably be done.

Anyway, lets get on to the grotty day in question. The Hotel Chateaubriand in the town of Chateaubriand (did I tell you what I had to eat last night ?) they did the buffet breakfast which means we all tucked into the standard cycle tourist approach of clearing as much as possible. What made it even better was when the lady came out to refill the table, she looked across sniffily at a bunch of what can only be called “Blue Collar” workers who took the rap for us.

Anyway, as indicated by the title, the weather was against us again. We have had wind or rain or cold or any permutation of those three. Today we had all three at the same time and in biblical proportions.

We had another ambitious day planned after yesterdays 125 km epic but for the first half of the day, it did not seem possible to get all the way. We eventually made our way into Retiers desperate for a cafe to dry out, warm up and basically recover. Despite being a town of what seems significant size, no cafe was to be found so it was yet another case of raiding the local patisserie for tarts and croissants then parking ourselves outside the local public toilets where a roof kept the worst of the conditions away.

Not happy !

By lunch time the rain eventually eased but the wind got stronger and we were going direct into it. After 14 days of solid riding, we were all very tired but battled on.

We did have some rest days planned but had decided earlier to take them when the sun was out as there was little point being sat about in crummy weather – result = no nice weather, no rest days.

We pulled into Chateaubourg for lunch where again we struggled to find a cafe so ended up in a pizza place during which time, the rains stopped and clouds broke. One giant savoury pancakey thing later and we set off again, this time with just two of the three elements battering us, cold and wind !

I even had the dubious honour of getting sunburnt this afternoon – on my ears ! Is this another sign of age or what, never happened before and really can't be bothered creaming up me lugs every time the sun comes out. Maybe I should become more of an aging hippy and let my hear grow long.

Anyway, off again where we eventually dropped off the edge of my final map as we turned onto the road to Trembelay and an area that both C & S were familiar with given our proximity to their holiday home (available to long & short term lets, in case I didn’t mention that).

The road was now directly into the wind and the rolling hills we have had recently got considerably larger, it was nearly like being back into the mountains. Needless to say, it was a slow and painful progress until we finally got to La Motte at about 18:00

We showered and donned our evening wear then took the opportunity to finish off our store of pasta etc and crawled into bed at about 21:00. Reconstituted french onion soup, paster, topped up with a tin of mushrooms and sweetcorn. Not the best meal but we needed to be fully fueled up for the followin morning

During the evening, C & S decided to stay on at their holiday home for a few days (did I say it was available for bookings – although not to poor people) so Mrs B and myself got all packed up and ready as it was an early start in order to go the 50 odd km’s to St Malo in order to get the 10:30 in the morning

Observation of the day

It may have been noticed that despite the purchase and transportation across Europe of full camping gear, it has not been as fully utilised as it might. 3 times to be precise.

This is because of a legal matter. We bought some brilliant sleeping bags, that did see the light of day more than 3 times as we used them in the Chalets. These bags, the Lifeventure Downlight 900 are 2 metres long (it was amazing that most sleeping bags are only built for those more vertically challenged members of our population) and really comfy but they are only good down to 5 degrees. If we had camped with them and the temperature went below that, we would of been in breach of contract !

See, so it was not me being soft, it was contract law.

Mind you, given it was a Down sleeping bag, it leaked feathers all over the place, in fact it was like being tarred and feathered, but without the tar.

As previously mentioned, we spent just over 300 quid on camping gear so the unit costs for camping was down to £100 per night. More expensive than the flippin hotels !

Chateaubriant all ends up !

Hi Sponsors, monster day today cracking 125 km going from 08:30 to 18:00 tonight with a quick coffee break at 13:00

The day started in the pouring rain as we left Les Herbiers so a full compliment of clothing was engaged. The first stop was the local Super U supermarket to stock up on essentials such as the Super U branded coke bottles which have knocked off the Haribo brand from top spot.

Stop Press - No super U coke bottles in stock. Had to settle for Bien Vue version which are a poor substitute but still have the required suger content so will have to do. And they do just as good a job as the expensive energy bars around

Anyway off we went in the rain up towards the Loire Valle and across the river. We stopped at St Laurent des Autels for a coffee which turned up in little more than a thimble. The coffee thing does seem a bit of a pointless exercise when is all over in a mouthful. I am sooooo looking forward to a decent Starbies

Anyway, we crossed the river Loire and more importantly, the rain had stopped although it was very grey and a bit of a head wind.

Every village we went through had a boulangerie and every one of them was closed until we reached Riaille at 16:00 when we finally got an open one. It is amazing how nice this stuff can taste, even sat outside the village public toilets on a day that had the colour turned down. Strawberry tart and croissant re-energised us so off we went again.

This was unknown territory for us now as we had already cracked 100 kms for the day but given camping was out, Hotels are easy to find so off to Chateaubriant we headed.




We got here just before 6 so it was a full day in the saddle and found a hotel imaginatively called the Hotel Chateaubriant



So that was two of the three sorted, I just needed to eat one to make the hat trick and guess what

Here it is !!




It tasted as good as it looks, shame the pudding was crap but cant have it all spose

Anyway, a quick observation before closing up for the day, Mrs B has decided to get a bit more in tune with the cycle tourists way of life and realised, somewhat belatedly, that this washing every night lark is not really feasible so we have a new routine.

We have day wear and evening wear and when items are "off duty" they are aired, the benefits of this are still unclear to me but I will go with it. When we do find washing facilities, evening wear gets promoted to day wear and original day wear is washed and then put into the evening wear cycle. Complicated I know but you are a clever lot so will figure it out.

Another related observation. When we packed to leave, we had a required pile of stuff and a desirables pile - the deodorant was in the desirables and didnt make the cut, with hindsight it should of been a requirement.

On that rather unpleasant thought, we leave you for the night

cya

A & G

More rain up to Les Herbiers

Strong winds from the North East this time - but I will moan about that later.

I have come to the conclusion that anyone who voluntarily camps when they have the means to use a Hotel, Gite or any other form of fixed holiday accomodation are certifiable. You campers nearly had me won round yesterday, The sun was peeping out occasionally, no wind and we found what I thought was an idillic campsite.

Now we know from experience that tents provide lousy noise insulation and people are the cause of campsite noise pollution !

As mentioned yesterday, we came across this campsite with only us and another caravan so the noise pollution bit was sorted then !!!

Not a chance, we had the town clock every hour, dogs from the village shouting their mouths off, a crop scarer was going off like a cannon every 20 minutes, a couple of cockerills giving it their all and the general bird life seemed to go mad. Bit like in a party when everyone gets louder as the evening goes on.

And to top it off, the cuckoos we were euligising about during the day and how nice it was, well I would have taken an air rifle to this one which seemed to be perching on my tent giving it big licks ALL FLIPPIN NIGHT !

if the noise wasnt bad enough, the temperature dropped overnight as the north easterlies blew in so it was both loud and cold - oh what fun !!



Looks lovely eh we nearly had shadows ! shame you cant see the crop scarer, clock bongs and the birds etc and the wind that hasn't started yet

Anyway given the noise, we were up unsuprisingly early this morning and set off at 8 O'clock. Now one of the wierd things from yesterday was all the nice quaint villkages had no people and today being Sunday, it was no different. What do people do with themselves around here ?

We did hit an open shop in Vix so we stocked up as this could well be the only open establishment in the country, which it so proved. Then it was into the north east wind for the day which as you can imagine was a bit of a slog, but it least it was dry, or so we thought. By lunch time, the drizzle started which then developed into a full blown downpour. So we now had a cold north easterly and wet rain :-(

Needless to say, we didnt last very long before we diverted into a place where people might exist, and more importantly, Hotels. So into Les Herbiers we went and looked around for a while until we came across hotel Le Centre



She looks a bit grim here - thats because she is !!

And this is where we ended up !




It seems to have been given two stars once ! but the landlady did let 4 soaking wet cyclists in and leave their dripping bikes in the hallway which makes her one rank down from a patron saint ! and I even got into the room in time to watch the last half dozen laps of the Spanish Grand Prix, where, incidently they had bright sunshine - I thinks its a plot you know

Anyway, many moons ago, which was earlier this morning, we bought a load of grub which we didnt now need. Well we ate it anyway, baguette and camembert and now the hotel room is a bit whiffy and its not just damp clothes.

We did go out for some food and found a place open with real people in it so had a pizza and a crepe. I thought it was quite nice !! aaah the old ones are the best

Best day yet

Hi sponsors. I feel I am neglecting you but this is another quicky as we are in another wifi free zone. in fact it is a pretty much eveything free zone. In a place called Taugon and the site population consists of us and and a caravan. plus a couple of empty mobile homes. I did have a sniff about them but we did get the tent out. First time since Spain.

Getting in to Rochfort was a bit of a faff trying to get on to the bridge from the south. And it wasnt even the place that did the cheese.

Once out the other side it turned into the type of France i had imagined the entire trip to be like. Empty roads and green fields which was great until we wanted to buy food and camp.

we got the campsite but not the food as eeverything is shut. Armistice day apparently. These Frenchys do have a bit of a cheeck on that one.

weather was dry all day with the occasional peek of sunshine. All raintops were off but arms and legs still covered

will try extra hard for wifi 2moro

cya

DAy 9 Hourtin to Ronce

No wi fi here so another phone generated blog I am afraid. The last burnt up half my mobile broadband allowance so short and sweet today.

Anyway a quick blast up to the ferry at Pointe de Grave and after our 2nd brekkie we boarded and was away. A 30 minute trip and MrsB managed not to be sick - so thats bettet than the ferry to santander.

Arrived in Royan which seemed rather nice but practically derserted and like many places we have seen on this trip, most houses are second homes and all shut down.

Rather than head direct north, we went west into a parkland area and had a very pleasant ride around the coast. france is a very nice place but half the time it feels we are the only ones in it. We only saw two people. i could crack open the old favourate about the country and the fact its full of French people bot that would be rude to mein hosts.

Anyway it should come as no surprise that it started raining when we got to Ronce so we ended up in another chalet thing. I would of camped ! Honest.

Took a while to find as all the sites had a minimum stay of 2 nights. No wonder they are all empty.

Anyway we are sorted now and off to Rochefort and beyond tomorrow.

if anyone has any questions about things i have forgotton to comment on - give us a shout in the comments or email etc.

Anyway thats it today before RSI of the thumbs kicks in.

Cya

G & A and friends

Broadsword calling Danny Boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy

Sunshine - first for a few days

Day 8 – 108 Km not out !! Sanguinet to Hourtin

108 Km sounds much more impressive than 63 ish miles which is why I am a late convert to the metric system. Even more impressive is the fact we are lugging camping gear and still into that flipping north wind which is keeping the temperature down to a maximum of 12 today according to all the temp gauges we saw on the pharmacy signs along the way.

Because of the cold, we are back in a camp site chalet – my fault really as its a bit nippy for me but the rest of them were up for it. I am going to have to use this camping gear soon. I spent over 300 quid on it and so far that breaks down to £150 per night camping. Not including site fees. I really have to get that tent out a bit more to bring that unit cost down a bit.

Plus the fact the 4 huge egos we are carrying around with us after getting some decent miles.. sorry.. kilometres under our belt wouldn’t fit into a tent, having said that, we shouldn’t get too carried away with ourselves as another wet day like yesterday will bring us back down to earth sharpish.


Today was our first day in France when we did not get berated by a motorist, which is hardly surprising as most of today was spent on cycle paths. Of the 100 Km’s done today (did I mention we did over 100 Km’s today ?) about 75 of those were on pukka cycle paths. It seems that all the old railway lines have been converted into cycle paths. It is great terrain for riding bikes full of luggage but would be a bit monotonous doing it all the time. Needs a few mountains really (Never happy are we).




Given our lack of progress yesterday, it was an early start leaving Sanguinet at 08:30 in cloudy but dry conditions and made our way to La Teste and onto the cycle lane that was to take us all the way to Lacanau eventually. The fleeces came off after about an hour although the raintops stayed on all day to keep out the cold but we did just get our heads down and pedalled like the clappers. No elevensis in warm coffee bars for your intrepid travellers today, we were on a mission.

The cycleway enabled us to avoid all the urban areas of Biganos, Audenge and all the way to Lege so it was just a case of stopping for Snickers, Haribo coke bottles and a first for the trip, bananas ! (Try saying bananas in a french accent, doesn't work)

Needless to say, by the time we reached Le Porge at 13:00, it was a case of running on empty so we managed to get into a Boulangerie just before it closed for some big eats. I personally set a PB in consuming an egg and bacon quiche, croissant and glorious fruit tart in under 4 minutes from start to finish.

The others also gave in some pretty impressive performances. Then it was across the road to a place called “The Pick Up Cafe” Needless to say, Mrs B insisted on a photograph in front of that, doing one of her alluring poses, apparently !




It was at this point that the knees saw the light of day for the first time in France. Bit of a shock when we started riding again but soon warmed up after a while.
We got to Lacanau and was just figuring out how to get up to Carcans when a French cyclist leapt on us to provide us with unrequired directions but in the interest of international relations, he was politely listened to while he babbled on trying to persuade us that the cycle route might be three times further in distance to Carcans but would be much nicer. And he reeked of garlic !

After he slung his hook, we then carried on the N3 road up to our next destination before finally getting up to Hourtin where there is a choice of about a dozen empty campsites and here we are for the night.

Anne is happy, she has found a washing machine so is busy playing with that. She just will not get into the spirit of the trip and insists in washing clothes at every opportunity. Everyone knows that cycle tourists need to chuck up a little bit –it proves effort after all.

Unfortunately the wifi does not reach our caravan thingy we are in so I now have to leave my warm confines and walk over to the reception and setup outside for the duration of my communication. Its a bit like being in the French Resistance where you go out to a hidden transmitter (wifi in this case) and quickly send a pre prepared transmission. Broadsword calling Danny Boy, Broadsword calling Danny Boy – Great movie that was !! Richard did all the talking and Clint shot everything on sight,as per.

Hoping for a change in wind direction soon and will be out of the Aquitaine region when we get the ferry across to Royan, probably by tomorrow lunch time.

To be honest, it has been another slow news day, hence the amount of padding you have been reading but to be fair, we prefer our adventure to be a bit less epic if possible.

Must go now as my chocolate tart is waiting for me in the fridge and is shouting to get out. Dont know what these endurance athletes are on about when they moan about not being able to get enough calories. We are having noooo problem, hence the love handles are still alive and well.

Bye for now

A & G

PS. My Office

Rain Rain Rain Rain .......

Riding along on my push bike honey..... oops sorry been singing the blessed song all day to distract from the rain !!!

Anyway, the detectives amongst you might have realised that today was rather wet. If we had been at home, the only way you would of got us out of the door was for a trip to the Waitrose Cafe ! Not today though. We surfaced from the Chalet at 09:15 in the rain and it carried on all day. It was a bit of a slow news day to be honest as it was a case of grinding out the kilometres trying to keep warm.

Looking on the upside, the panniers and trailer was a bit lighter today as we were wearing most of our clothes. We got to Mimizan where we donned just about every item of clothing we had and then set off like a bunch of Michelin man adverts all looking huge.

Getting out of Mimizan was a bit of a challange and a motorist was so upset with us riding on his road, he got out of his car at a cross roads with traffic lights to berate us not using the cycle path on the left side of the road. We turned right ! Agincourt to you to mate - best laugh of the day

Lunch was in Parentis, in some kind of food version of a wine bar with lots of banging music to eat our kebab pannini's and coffee. Rather bizarre but the food was good.

After that, it was the final leg of the day up to Sanguinet. The roads would be brilliant in decent weather, long straight and most importantly, flat.

We have been going a week now and so much has happended to us in that time. No tantrums or fallings out, but give me time and I am sure I can rustle up something. A big thank you to Mark and the boys at Peter Hansfords cycles in Winchester - all the kit is behaving brilliantly with no failures of bikes or associated equipment which is a huge relief. It would be a bit grim having mechanical failures in the recent weather conditions

We have got ourselves another Chalet type of arrangement which is handy as it gives us the ability to dry out our stuff



It gets a bit smelly at times

Anyway, it was all a bit glum today given the constant bad weather we are having to battle our way through and one of the big things that keeps us going is seeing the counter going up on the www.justgiving.com/anne-barratt page for Cancer Research so if you have not got around to it yet, please do :-)

In fact while I am on your case, feel free to forward our story onto your many friends who you think might want to chuck a few quid our way for the dubious pleasure of reading of our now "epic" adventure.

I remember someone telling me that adventure is stress and discomfort reminiced from the comfort of an armchair so the greater the stress and discomfort, the bigger the adventure - hence the "epic" qualification. Even if we say so ourselves

Anyway lets hope for a dry day tomorrow and we hope to get a decent distance

North Wind

The clue for the sort of day we had is in the title in two counts. Firstly it was blowing a hooley and we were riding into it all day. then there was the temperature, or lack of it. south of flippin France in May and the temp guage did not even get into double figures !!! still look on the bright side, at least we did not have to keep getting changed every time the current bun came out - it didnt. And i havnt started on the windchill yet.

No wifi tonight so this is being typed up on my phone. See the lengths we go to in order to keep our sponsors happy !!

Anyway the day started with a buffet brekkie so between the 4 of us we managed to get through a hefty chunk of whats available.

Leaving Biarritz wasnt much nice tan the spanish towns , less trucks perhaps but stroppy french drivers. Not as patient as the Spanish.

Anyway once we got out of town we were into the nature reservy type place so was fairly car free. The area is like a cross between a massive New Forest and a giant centre parcs. It was such a shame it was so windy and cold but it was a cyclists heaven. As per the tweets, we got to Leon for a superb lunch. fixed 3 courser starting with a soup better than most. moules n chips which were not the best but still ok. Finished off with creme caramel and coffee. That should do us for the day you would thinf - not a chance. Just had bread n jam n cheese for tea. Not to mention a mille feuilles the size of a brick. These love handles are going nowhere :-)

by the time we finally finished lunch, which took a while as you might imagine, it was getting on and getting even colder but we really couldnt justify another hotel, especially after lugging the gear across umpteen mountains. It is currently tent nights 2 hotel nights 3 so it had to be a campsite. Anyway we stopped at a supa u supermarket where i saw they had the weather on the televisions. Minimum temp 2nite is 2 degrees !!! Sorry but not having that - anyway the sleeping bags only go down to 5 so i would of been in breach of contract. thankfully the 4 star campsite had chalets so we are in one now. Good job really as it is lashing down now - anyone give me some odds for snow.

Thats yer lot for today as the phone is getting tired and so am i so nighty nighty

Spanish review

With this cycling lark, one tends to get a bit more up close and personal with the local culture and on the whole, the Spanish are rather an agreeable bunch and seem very benevolent to us Brits on the whole. This is particularly impressive being as we have been shipping our criminals and hooligans out to them to live or holiday for such a long time now. Basically since the Australians got all nimby on us and stopped accepting them like they used to.

The roads between the towns were very good although a little too steep for my liking when lugging kit along. The town roads were a bit more English esque with a healthy collection of pot holes and pretty tired infrastructure in parts.

From a cycling point of view, the mountains tend to funnel all modes of transport through fairly narrow channels so we have tended to use a large proportion of main roads and go from one conurbation to another with no chance of going around, at least not in our timescales.

The whole area is very green which looks very nice, particulary when looking out at the views across valleys - always an excuse to regain our breath when cycling upwards. The green comes at a price - rain, and lots of it. This is my second stint of cycling in Spain and both times, I have been blighted with infernal precipitation.

The culture change of the drivers was quite pronounced when cycling across the border, with Spanish drivers more than happy to wait for four, usually lost, English cyclists to wobble past whereas the French flavour seem to be much more Anglo Saxon in their driving habits, based on one afternoon anyway.

Overall, the Spanish leg was a bit of a slog in retrospect although the euphoria of the inital stages of the trip carried us through this so was still enjoyable. The days have been longer than planned with the days cycling finishing about 6 o'clock or later generally, this is mainly because of the time taken getting through the towns.

Anyway, we are hoping for the highlight of the trip now, going through the Aquitaine area with long roads with few navigation decisions to get wrong and relatively town free.

Bring it on !!

Into France

After such a harrowing evening last night, we had a great meal in the hotel and a really good nights sleep. We were up, breakfasted and raring to go at 8.50am, but then the heavens opened which delayed us for another hour!

We started the day with a mean hill climb from Lezo to Mt Jaizkibel on the way to Hondarribia which was 9km up to 455m above sea level and 9km down, during which time it lashed down again and we took shelter under some trees for a while. It was freezing at the summit and the descent was bitterly cold, with the wind starting to pick up.

We stopped for a great lunch in Hondarribia, lasting 2 hours in all, due to manyana service and more rain. Our next destination was across the French border to Hendaye and then onto St Jean De Luz, which was another climb, we thought we had seen it all on the weather front until we were hit by phenominal wind, very challenging to control the bikes on the busy road descent, Anne was blown off her bike, we decided walking with bikes was a better option, this was also amazingly tough going as the wind was side on. Shirley also lost control just walking the bike. This slowed us down enormously so after St Jean De Luz we switched from the coast road to a busier road with but much less wind.

We were delighted to reach Biarritz and then started hunting for a hotel. It was too cold, wet and windy to camp.

Biarritz is lovely, lots of very expensive shops and a nice beach, another one for a future visit.

We have since had a fabby meal in a Basque restaurant, 3 excellent courses for 20 euros a head, and are now tucked up in bed ready for another good nights sleep.

We do hope the sun shows its face soon, if only to justify the transportation of the sun tan cream up and down umpteen mountains. It is the only flavour of weather we have not had yet

San Sebastian

Hi All

I thought I knew what stress was when trying to cycle out of Santander a few days ago but we have now experienced a whole new level when cycling around the industrial wastelands of east side San Sebastian at 7 o'clock in the evening, running out of options on where to stay and the heavens open up !!! but more of that later

The day started in our tent at 07:00 in torrential rain so hung about for a bit. A quick break in the weather enabled us to get all out kit into the laundry room which the site manager was not too chuffed about but hey, we cant speak spanish ??. We did make a bit of a racket but that was us being childish, being as the other residents insisted on partying until the early hours. They didnt seem to care that four tired cyclist needed their beauty sleep, then again, they are on holiday as well :_)


We left the site at about 09:30 and managed the scary hill down followed by more ups and downs until we reached Deba for our elevenses where we found a great place on the beach front serving tapas in a bun so we had a few of those, plus sticky cake and two coffees each. Then off again alternating between lost in cloud cover then back down to sea level as the weather was pretty grim with minimal views.

Got to Orio for another bite to eat with more bun styled tapas (bit wierd having an omlette in a bread bun but still yummy) then last major climb of the day towards Monte Igeldo on a quiet country road. Pretty spectacular views or would of been if we had not been stuck in cloud cover.

It was a good way into San Sebastian, avoiding all the main roads in where we met a friend for coffee (thanks Dan, it always taste nicer when someone else pays!! good to see you again) The sun came out for the hours we were in the city centre and it is a beautiful city and definately worth another visit as we did not have anytime to do it justice.

Then the nightmare began. We decided to get out of the city on the Sunday evening as the hotels in the centre looked very nice and pricey and we also wanted to get out before the heavy traffic of a weekday morning. As a result, we took the N1 direct out of town. If you can imagine cycling out of London on the A40, well that was us except we did not know where we were going to stay at the end of it. Having reached Lezo, it was obvious that there was no campsites in the vicinity as we are still in the industrial area but we did get a hotel pointed out to us on top of a hill across the busy N1 dual carriageway. By now, the rain was in full flow and we made our way across into Errenteria where after asking directions from at least half the population, we finally found it at the top of yet another 2 km climb. This uphill lark is certainly loosing its appeal.

Anyway, we struck lucky in the Berry Versalles hotel which is very nice although we do have to get across that lovely N1 in order to get back on our nice quiet road onto Hendaye and beyond into France.

These late finishes are getting a bit much and we are looking forward to ending our daily travels about mid to late afternoon and having a mooch about a bit. Might even have time to upload a few photographs then

Still getting all your messages of encouragement and they work a treat so keep em up

Thats yer lot for today so tune in tomorrow for the next mildly exciting monologue

cya

A & G

xxxx

Big mountain day

Hi all

Set the alarm for six to get an early start to take on Bilbao but it was heaving it down - so back to bed for an hour. Finally on the road for 09:30 with a huge climb to start. Point to remember, dont camp by the beach, everywhere you go is up !

Got through Bilbao pretty well although it was very quiet as it was Saturday and public holiday. Found a transporter bridge to get us across the river and saved us having to go all the way into the town. Out the other side and into the suburbs of Getxo where it was 2nd brekkie with coffee and cake, followed by another coffee and sandwich.

We then got lost getting out of Getxo and met a Spanish gent called Manuel who gave us a guided tour out of Getxo and through Sopolana so we have his photograph and email address so we can say thank you properly. We were led out of towns three times today from various people, they are really rather helpful.

We are now out into proper countryside and on our way through Mungia and onto Gernika which we reached about 15:30 and had a late lunch at a petrol station - very posh !

Anyway, we are now on a roll and decided to go all the way to Lekeitio having being fully fed and watered again. This was particularly mountainous with a brilliant mountain pass on the BI 2238 into the town. We finally go there about 6 and started looking for camp sites. We met another cyclist who told we had a choice of two - one was halfway up a very steep road, the other was slightly further away but without the altitude issue. Needless to say, we went for the easier option only to get there to find the flipping place was shut until June. We didnt fancy waiting that long, so went back to the town and climbed up to the second site. After about a 15% gradient for a mile or so, we came across the turn off for the site, which was even steeper !! Whats this all about !!!!

Anyway, major sense of humour failure by now and got off and walked it. The site is nice and it was glorious sunshine all evening so we got rigged up in no time, showered and sat in the restaurant and wolfed down our food as if we had not been fed for days.

Ready for bed now so you will have wait a bit longer for some photographs as we need some kip to do more of the same tomorrow. Aiming for San Sebastian tomorrow and meet a friend who lives there for a coffee.

Thank you for the messages of encouragement, great moral support and much appreciated

Keep it up

bye for now

A & G

Phew what a day !!

We were hoping for a slow news day today after the stress and excitement of getting out from Santander but it was not to be. We set off at 9am, after an hour of packing up and had a nice quiet road initially. We stopped in Santona at 10.30am for a nice coffee and apple cake, great to be able to get away with eating as much as possible! then it got a bit busy but even more importantly, the big hills began. We had about 5 or 6 climbs of about 40 minutes or more over the day which when fully loaded down with stuff, it was extremely hard work.

Lunch in a workmans bar was a mixed salad and Chorizo and spuds in gravy which filled a spot.

We wanted to get as close to Bilbao as possible in order to take that conurbation on early Saturday morning. We think we are Zerbina and the camp site with lots of recommendations on Google had actually closed 4 years ago so we ended up spending 50 klebbies each for a room in a bit of a flea pit.

Anyway, it is clean and took the opportunity to wash the rapidly accumulating smelly clobber so we have stuff hanging all over the place. all off to bed now as shattered and need to get up early again tomorrow to attack yet more mountains, and just watched the weather forecast which is rain and rain and more rain for Saturday and Sunday!

Finally here !!!

Hi everyone, We finally got here after a very choppy crossing! - details to follow later as still on other computer. Got off the ferry about 1 ish and ran into a stroppy copper who didn´t like us taking tourist photos so he made us empty all our paniers out and looked suspiciously when he saw our sealed bags of porridge - he obviously doesn´t eat his for breakfast!

It was very scary at first entering into a very busy city, and trying to find our way out riding on the wrong side of the road, laden down, but eventually, after 1.5hours we actually managed to get out. We do know our way around numerous Santander industrial estates and very nice they were too.

Finally got out of the city (which we didnt realise it was so big) and made our way around the estuary and back up the other side. We are now in Loredo at a campsite called Derby which is on the coast. The sun has gone and only a bit of rain so we got the tents up, had a shower then made tea

That consisted of a tin of Mackeral, spagetti and a tomato sauce, finished off with some a cup of tea and a big slab of Spanish chocolate cake

We are in a games room at the moment using a spanish computer so you will have to wait for the photographs until we find a campsite with wi fi

We only managed 38 kilometres today, mainly due to taking ages in getting out of Santander.

We hope to get just this side of Bilbao tomorrow then take that town on first thing Saturday morning - hopefully without the amount of traffic we had today, although to be fair the Spanish drivers are much more patient in allowing for wobbly english cyclist to go their merry way.

Just a quickie for the children, hoping you all OK, missing you loads, we will be home in no time.xxx

fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow and a chance to catch up on the miles we didn´t do today. Hopefully we can log in somewhere tomorrow. byeeeeee

Gear is nearly all packed

Hi Sponsers

Here we are, nearly ready to leave with most of the kit packed. We have cracked the two grand on the sponsorship front which is fantastic so thank you all for that.




Here is the dining table covered with some of our stuff, which is more or less gone into one bike trailer and two panniers with a few bits still left looking for a home

I have requested the BBC change their 5 day forecast for Santander and lower the heat a bit and remove the rain which they have kindly done ! I never knew my license fee commanded such power.

Must try harder

There is so much to do getting ready for this ride that it leaves no time to write up this blog.

D-Day had less preparation !

Anyway, sort of recovered from riding down to the beach with trailer and riding home again without trailer, without wife on the return trip as she had more sense and came back in the mum and dad taxi. Pretty nippy down on the coast.

Managed to grap 40 winks late saturday afternoon to aid my recovery process !

Learnt how to transfer photographs across to laptop via bluetooth so we can hopefully provide you with a more visual feast over the next couple of weeks.

Funding raising has gone over £1,600 so far. A big thank you for that

cya

4 days to go

4 days to go and we have finally got round to riding the bikes fully loaded. We packed all our stuff last night then hooked up the trailer on my bike and put the panniers on annes. This exercise still took 1 and half hours and this was with everything packed and no tent to dismantle. Gonna have to do a bit better than that !



3 O'clock returning back, just approaching Hilliers garden centre on the left near Romsey and pretty cream crackered

Hello World

Well here we go then, In just over a weeks time we will be on our way Santander to then cycle our way back home again - Whats the point of that then ?

Charidee, thats what, the details of which can be found at www.justgiving.com/Anne-Barratt

The purpose of this blog is to provide entertainment for the sponsors describing our trials and tribulations of the trip to be enjoyed from the comfort of your armchair

Welcome aboard and we hope you enjoy the trip

G&A