Day 10 – Adventure time

Left the slightly crap campsite as quick as we could this morning and went into the nearby town for breakfast. A restaurant was open early offering drinks only so we bought pain au Suisse from a nearby boulangerie and took it to the restaurant to have with our coffee. Yum. Then went to a nearby supermarket to buy food for a picnic lunch

Set off for a long day. Slightly over 40 miles and this is where the hills start and the days involve considerably more climbing. We had identified a Plan B campsite at 30 miles in case we’d had enough of the hills by then.

About half an hour into the ride I was just reaching the top of a hill when another cyclist caught up with me and we started chatting. He was a Belgian called Marcus whose first language was French but his English was very good which helped the conversation to flow. He said he had seen us at the supermarket earlier. He was now heading to Confolens which was on our route about 15 miles away. A mile or so further on we stopped at his riverside house for him to drop off his shopping and we refilled our water bottles. Then onwards via Marcus’ shortcut along an old railway line; about the same distance but it avoided two big hills for which we were thankful. We had to work hard to keep up with him as he was faster than us. Along the way he told us of his life as an architect, restoring old houses across Western Europe and even the odd castle. He set such a good cycling pace that we arrived in Confolens at noon, long before our expected arrival time.

This is Marcus who was so much faster than us. He was riding an ancient 6-speed bike and he is 80 years old. When I asked if I could take his photo he said “Is my hair ok?” He was a lot of fun.

Marcus went to meet his friends for lunch and we ate our picnic in glorious sunshine by the river, then had a quick drink outside a bar in the town square.

Headed out of town and climbed an evil endless hill. The rest of the day we were on a medium sized road which was like a rollercoaster all the way. Some exciting speedy downhill sections and plenty of slogging our way back up in the heat.

Mid-afternoon we stopped at a village with some letters in its name and bought chocolate éclairs which we ate in a riverside park. They had the usual layer of choc on top of the choux pastry, however inside there was no chantilly cream but an enormous quantity of chocolate goo. Yum! Probably contained more calories than we used for the entire day’s cycling.

We were surprised at how fast we were moving toward our destination of Rochechouart. With just 4 miles left to go Jackie’s chain slipped off at the front during a gear change and got itself tangled between the derailleur and the chainring, doubled back on itself and very firmly stuck. This put the rear derailleur under enormous tension. Working on the small grass verge beside the busy road we loosened the front derailleur mount thereby releasing the tension and enabling us to put everything back in place. The derailleur was bent and rubbing against the peddle arm; we adjusted it enough to be able to continue to the campsite. We got away with it as it was almost entirely downhill from here, through the quaint town of Rochechouart which was festooned with bunting and on to Camping Meteorite (one landed somewhere around here sometime).

Campsite reception man (sounds like a superhero!) was fantastic. We booked in and he supplied us with drinks, local craft beer for me (9/10!) and Leffe for Jackie. The campsite restaurant was not open and the only place to eat locally was a kebab shop all the way up an enormous hill. We looked exhausted and probably dejected too. Then he said that a cycling club was staying there and he organised catering for all of them each evening. He phoned the caterer to see if we could join them for dinner. They said yes and our spirits lifted considerably. We pitched our tent and then hung Jackie’s bike from a tree so we could work on it. We improved things further but something odd was still going on that we couldn’t quite remedy.

Campsite Reception Man™️ dropped by to tell us dinner was ready and we walked up to the dining area, a wooden barn with a covered area outside. The cycling club members were already eating in the barn. We collected our dinner of chicken in mushroom sauce with pasta and sat shyly outside the barn.

Eventually Jackie summoned the courage to go into the barn and introduce herself. Within a mere three sentences she had turned the conversation to whether the cycling club had a mechanic with them. No, they didn’t. But you can’t keep a bunch of men on bikes away from a technical problem. There was much discussion and chin-stroking during which one of the cyclists gave us a dessert each. It was like the chocolate éclair we had in the afternoon but more of a tower shape. I managed to squirt chocolate goo all over the table – oops! We have definitely over-eaten today. Then half a dozen men in Lycra came to our pitch to take a look at Jackie’s bike. Much fettling later there was enough improvement to get us through the following day’s ride to Brantôme where we knew there was a bike repair shop.

To bed, hoping that Jackie’s bike would hold up for 40-ish miles without any further mishap.

Miles cycled: 43

Total miles: 389

Good things today: