Back in the saddle

Rippling and sparkling,

canal waters hide many fish -

eagle flies by, hoping.

It came as a pleasant surprise to us that, after a two month hiatus from cycle touring, it wasn't as hard as it had been when we started our journey back in March. Totally unfit, when we left Dublin we were struggling to cover 40km each day but in the last 7 days of riding we have averaged roughly 60km per day. We even managed a very respectable 94km on Tuesday, a stinking hot day. And today, 83km in the pouring rain.

Leaving Noisy-sur-École on a beautiful summers morning.

And slipping into our old routine has been just as easy. Though the warmer weather has wrought a few changes to our routine. It is much easier to get out of bed when there's no frost on the ground. We don't feel the need for a warm breakfast or a cup of tea before we start in the morning, which is a good thing because we need to head off earlier to get more ground covered before the heat of the afternoon (with long European summer days the hottest part of the day is between 3 and 7pm, the sun not setting until 10). 

Good organisation is the key to any good campsite !

The arrival icecream has become an integral part of our afternoon.

We have seen some changes in landscape as we've headed south, but not a huge amount. The countryside is still undulating rather than flat or hilly. Sometimes we've followed the Loire river or the Loire canal quite closely on the flat, sometimes we've traversed across the hills above the river valley (though we're steering clear of too many big hills until we get a little stronger). We're seeing more sunflowers and corn, still plenty of wheat, which is currently being harvested and fields of mown hay, dotted with their big squat cylinders of bales.

Bellegarde Donjon, 1376.

Sunflower field, Loire valley.

Riding amongst wild flowers, near the Loire River.

Not having seen cows since the west of Ile de France, the last couple of days we have seen more and more fields of white cows, often with calves. There were grape vines decking the hills around Sancerre and now we are coming into the southern vines of the Burgundy region. We took hardly any photos today though because bucketing rain and cameras don't mix well.

After following the Loire for about 250km (from Gien to Digoin), we are now following the Canal du Centre to the river Saone (though we'll probably succumb to the lure of the grape and head up into Burgundy for a brief sojourn). There is an extensive network of canals throughout the country and nowadays they are used primarily by pleasure craft. Yesterday we even saw a houseboat flying the Australian flag going through a lock. The most bizarre thing though, is the way the canals cross rivers on bridges!

Fully loaded next to the Loire river.

Pont canal - a canal on a bridge over the Loire river.

Bike path along the Loire river south of Briare.

South from Noisy-sur-École to Gien we cycled on smaller roads and at Gien we joined up with the Euro Velo 6 route to the Black Sea. The route is sometimes signposted, sometimes not but we have maps to follow and make our own decisions about which way we want to go. Some of the route, like the last couple of days, has been on well paved canal paths. Some has been on atrociously surfaced small country roads and some has been gravel. Some times we cycle on regular roads (generally nothing too busy). 

The weather has been great up until today - sun shining, sometimes a little cloud cover to cool things down, only a couple of really hot days (one we rested and the other we rode as far as we could). But today we've had storms all day, thunder and lightening and absolutely soaking rain. Never a dull moment!

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words Gabby, images Neil