Day Two – Pissing in the wind

Boy did it rain last night! And so loud too! We are so pleased with our tiny tent, we remained dry as a bone all night.

Woke up this morning to drab weather and a pair of ducks sitting outside our tent, almost as if they’d been allocated to us during the night. Packed down the tent as quickly as we could, just before more rain started.

Cycled the very short distance into town and had coffee at a local tabac with pastries from a boulangerie over the road. Ready to go!

38 miles today and plenty of time to do it. Headed west towards the Atlantic and straight into a strong headwind. Cycling on the flat felt like climbing a steep hill. The landscape was very sparse and open, no shelter, and the wind was intense. We were moving at around 4-6mph which was very disappointing. Luckily, after about half an hour of this, it rained extremely heavily too and I discovered that my lightweight waterproof was so lightweight that they’d seriously compromised on the waterproofness (waterproofocity?). Well, totally compromised. I was quickly soaked to the skin and very cold. Although heavy, the rain was brief and I was soon drying in the 20mph headwind. Perfect!

The wind just got worse and the landscape was flat for as far as the eye could see. We headed south west but progress wasn’t any easier. I was getting angry. I really hate the wind. So much so that I found myself swearing loudly at it, shouting obscenities pointlessly into the middle of a field, startling some egrets.

Eventually after 20 miles of total torture we reached a small town with a C in its name where we found curried chicken paninis with mozzarella for lunch.

Refuelled, we set off once again, with conditions no better and the outlook still utterly bleak and depressing. I swore into the wind some more and it ignored me some more. The ride dragged on for ever and to make it worse we were now cycling on sandy tracks. Hurrah. I often like to sing while I’m cycling but just moving at all was such hard work today that I had no breath left, so I played some music through my headphones which I wear all the time for listening to route directions. They’re bone-phones which vibrate the sound through your cheekbones, leaving yours uncovered so you can hear when you’re about to be run over.

There were some small uplifting moments: Jesus hiding behind a bush; a heron flying sideways without even flapping its wings; a dark lizard running skittishly alongside me for a few feet; a luminous green lizard darting across the road in front of me; a horse running in the wind; more egrets and windmills!!

Things got so difficult I was down to 4mph max and after a while of this we found a small cafe where we had fizzy pop and almond magnums. That helped. Shortly afterwards a small village with an amazing patisserie where I had a custard tart and Jackie enjoyed a Paris Brest, ideal for a cycling trip!

About 5 miles later we could go no further and sat at the edge of the road eating emergency Lion bars in the hope they would provide enough energy to get us out of the wetlands and on to somewhere more sheltered. Eventually we made it to a town with some letters in its name and with only about 4 miles left to go we stopped for dinner. More fried food as that was all that was available, good chips though!

The final stretch was a delight, weaving through pine forest until we reached our campsite. It get decidedly off season. We chose a pitch, put up the tent, showered and headed straight for bed at 10pm. We will sleep soundly tonight.

Good things today: