As expected music from the party on the campsite and another venue nearby disturbed us until the small hours. Annoying as it is we've learnt to sleep through it if not peacefully. Around eight this morning the grinding of suitcase wheels on tarmac woke us. During our stay at Bordeaux we learnt that these youngest were here with regard to the university. Probably an open day. Around eight last night a swedish cyclist arrived. This morning with no rush as our train wasn't until three forty seven, we spent quite a while talking to him. He's fit for sixty mentioned John. Angela had already noticed. In fact he was fifty eight, but let's not split hairs. He was on his first ever long distance cycling trip to southern Portugal where his brother lived. He'd actually arrived by train from Paris the night before. We informed him about the closure of campsites which he didn't realize about. At midday we all shook hands and wished each other a safe journey. We cycled back down to the waterfront.
A fallen tree lay across the cycle path. We hoped a cyclist hadn't been passing underneath when it fell. As always there were people everywhere. Bordeaux is really cosmopolitan, and we just love it. Thankfully the cruise ships were gone opening up the view down the river. A stop to buy lunch and food for this evening, and then we sat in the shade of the trees until it was time to head to the station. After our terrible trip on the train to Toulouse last Sunday we vowed not to take the train again at the weekend.
What were we doing? As expected the train was packed. As always the other passengers didn't welcome us with our bicycles. And as always the bike space was full of suitcases. Here we go again! By the time we reached our stop at Rochefort it became a free for all to leave the train despite John telling the passengers around the doors we would need to be able to get off. In the scrum Angela's bike caught her injured knee which had been healing nicely taking off an area of new skin. There was blood everywhere! Upon our arrival at the campsite, where the young security man couldn't understand English or Angela's French and basically said, no reservation, no camping. Behave man. Fortunately a young French woman came to our rescue and translated for us. We have stayed here twice before, once earlier this year and we know you can come on with a bicycle without booking. We're not happy with our allocated pitch, but it will do for now. Tomorrow we will request to move nearer the indoor room and kitchen. Visiting the Ile de Re is off. To cycle forty miles for a couple of days just to turn round and come back to catch another train from La Rochelle doesn't seem worth it. We just want to stay in the warmth for as long as we can, and it's plenty warm enough here, so we'll stay two nights. Tomorrow we will plan the next five days. We will book a ferry from Cherbourg to Poole for Sunday. Meanwhile Angela is worried about her knee. She has cleaned it with the iodine scrub prescribed by the hospital and will continue to do so for a few days. We feel sad we only have a few days of this trip left. This morning our swedish companion spoke some wise words. ' Not exploring the world, is like opening a book and only reading the first page'. We had to agree.
No comments:
Post a Comment