Day 107
A very big sand dune
Well, it was an exciting start for Tom and I today. We needed to fill up our kitchen store. We carry a few spices, jam and pickles, to add flavour to meals, we like to have something which keeps to create an evening meal in case one day we do not pass a shop. We needed daytime snacks and something cook for tonight. Oh, and toilet rolls, hopefully we can buy fewer than a pack of 48! We had planned to do this yesterday but got caught out by Sunday closing. The supermarket was inside a massive shopping mall. The choice was mind blowing, but we had to focus and bypass all the tempting food in the chilled aisles. It is harder to shop when bike touring than you would imagine. It’s not so much of, ‘what do I want to eat?’ but more, ‘what does it weigh ?‘, ‘will it travel and keep OK on the bike? ‘, ‘How long does it take to cook?’ etc. Shopping was eventually done, and tonight’s menu was pre-cooked rice, chorizo with garlic, onion, red pepper and courgette. Very nice it was too! We treated ourselves to a second breakfast of coffee and pain aux raisin to recover!
Then it was back on the bikes and EV1. The route as usual kept us just about 100% on cycle tracks. It is just awesome and so relaxing. I still struggle when we have to cross roads and the traffic stops and lets us go, I mean, even white van man does!
We were soon out of town and into some pretty forest. We met a group of tourers, Michel, Henri(?) and Helene who were happy to chat. We had quite a bit of banter as Michel spoke pretty much fluent English. Goodbyes said, we were on our way again. Tom was very excited as he had a treat in store. Despite the fact we had just spent the best part of two days removing sand from everywhere and everything, we were off back for more. EV1 takes us past ‘La Dune de Pilat’ the largest sand dune in Europe. A million people visit every year and it is easy to understand why. At 106 metres high it raises way above the treeline of the forest on Cap Feret Point , the view from summit is breath taking. In summer they helpfully put stairs in place to help with climbing up it, thankfully they leave them in place until the end of October! We both loved the whole experience and have added it to our ever-growing list of somewhere to revisit.
As we carried on we saw a wild boar. A first for Tom and I unfortunately it was lying dead at the side of the road poor thing.
The route remained forest based until we passed a lake, then soon we were at our campsite, Les Pres Verts. Very pretty it is too, though we have had to take shelter under an awning as pine cones, acorns and small bits of branches keep dropping from the trees.
Time for bed as Zeebedee would say. Bon Nuit!
