Day 105
Wash day
Tonight, we had a Warmshowers host booked. Lea had kindly agreed to host us despite having a house full. We looked at the forecast, we would be leaving on Sunday in very heavy rain. We needed time to plan our start in Spain, which means ideally somewhere quiet and dry to sit with good WiFi. We needed to clean and dry out a lot of kit after last night’s downpour too. We reluctantly messaged Lea and let her know we would leave her in peace to enjoy the weekend with family and booked a cheap deal in a hotel for two nights so we could get a day out of the rain on Sunday and plan. Just the small matter of nearly 100k to cycle there,
We woke to a dry start, the floor of the tent was wet through, a worrying problem, let’s hope Spain is dry! Camping on sands means sand was on and in everything! We quickly packed up and were soon back on track. We had some hills for the first time in days, still deep in the forest. Then, with great excitement we approached Lacunau. About nine years ago we had spent a week here with my family and Tom’s son Jim. We were soon recognising familiar roads, then buildings. Lacunau itself looked smarter than when we had visited. We spent a while revisiting our favourite haunts, the little funfair Jeddy rode on, but most important was the ice-cream shop. We cycled here virtually every day. Unfortunately, our favourite spot was closed. Ah well, another reason to return.
Not long after leaving the coast at Lacanau we headed inland on another disused railway line. It ran straight for miles, easily about 30k or more. We were passing through the outskirts of town after town. Briefly we were back in a forest or at least a bit of woodland but we had clearly left the tourist area behind. We found a picnic table to eat lunch at, and for some reason Tom suggested we drink the bottle of cider I was carrying. As my family and friends will confirm a day-time drink soon sends me to sleep, so I was a bit reluctant but boy French cider is excellent. We then had a video chat with my mum, brother Dave and his wife Jane. Now that may have inspired me, but Tom thinks the cider fuelled me. Whichever, the last few miles flew by. When we arrived at the hotel, we were kindly offered an upgrade to an apartment. Fabulous. Now on with the relaxing, sorry I mean washing all that sand out of everything!
