Last night’s camp site was rather lovely, until the moment we snuggled onto the airbeds, ready for bed, at the ungodly hour of 9.30pm. it was at that moment that the unmistakeable strains of Boney M’s classic Ra Ra Rasputin started from somewhere nearby.
It became slightly more bizarre, when a dear friend (I’m mentioning no names) said that she had a Boney M tune playing in the church during her first wedding … The things you learn on a camping trip!
It turned out, not to be a short-lived musical interlude, but the start of an all-night back-to-back party of 1980s classics with Gangsta’s Paradise raising the tent roof at about 3am. We jammed our ear-plugs in, which kept the worst of the noise at bay, and thanks to having cycled 100km during the day, we did manage to get some sleep.
This morning, we woke to all our batteries, somehow having emptied themselves of power during the night. We have no idea how, but all of a sudden we had phones which hadn’t fully charged and batteries that had no power left to give. So after a frantic 5 minutes of worry, about how we could charge everything, until we reach Rochefort tomorrow, I disappeared up to the toilet block and plugged everything into the sockets, whilst Andy started to pack the tent away.
I also decided to go old-school on the navigation for today, plotting the route that I’d done on Komoot, onto the paper map, writing basic instructions on a piece of paper, to keep me on track during the day’s ride.
In fact, by the time Andy had packed up the tent, there was enough juice in my phone for the day, and I had managed to get emergency levels of.power into the batteries too. So it felt as if a potential crisis had been averted.
Slightly calmer, we loaded the bikes and set off on what (on paper) seemed like a gentle day’s ride, from Mareuil-Sur-Lay-Dissais, through the Marais Poitevin to the beautiful Venise Verte village of Coulon, somewhere we had first visited 36 years ago (yes we are that old!)
We pottered out of Mareuil on quiet roads, looking forward to the day ahead. After yesterday’s vineyards, we found ourselves cycling through a huge fruit-growing area, with the apple trees laden with fruit, almost ready for harvest.
Then we turned right, and started to head across country, and almost instantly found ourselves being pushed backwards by a hideous headwind
There are headwinds and then there are ‘HEADWINDS’ and this was definitely one of those. It was brutal,
It felt as if we were pedalling through treacle and we could feel every one of the 10kg plus of panniers that we have on the bikes.
We hoped for some respite, but as we pedalled on, we realised that we weren’t going to be that lucky. Not only were we cycling into a strong wind, but a strong wind across an area resembling Salisbury Plain.
It was a beautiful area of rolling, open fields filled with Maize and sunflowers, with wind turbines dotted across the landscape, their blades turning gently, harnessing the power of the wind to power local communities.
But, there were no hedges, trees or in fact anything that would protect us from the wind. We found a little Aimentation , buying coke, sweets and bits for lunch, before cycling on.
At one point, we had to stop under a walnut tree, just for a rest, ugging our full-fat coke and sucking on salted caramel to take a break from the wind and power out legs for the next stage of the ride.
It was bizarre, as we had imagined wind would be coming off the sea, but this was rattling towards it, clearly determined to get there as quickly as it could. People cycling towards us looked as if they hadn’t got a care in the world, pedalling gently with a smile on their faces. We, on the other hand were bent double, over the handlebars, focusing on simply rotating the pedals and not being blown backwards, or buffeted into the ditch.
It was exhausting, and if I said anything else, I would be lying.
We kept an eye out for somewhere for lunch, spotting a perfect picnic spot by a river, as we cycled into the Venise Verte.
Not only was there a wonderful picnic bench with a roof to shade us from the mid-day heat, but also a stunning scrap-iron sculpture of a heron surrounded by bullrushes.
A couple were just leaving, and we ended up chatting to them for a while about where we were going, and what we were doing. They seemed a little surprised that anyone would be mad enough to cycle from England back towards Provence, but wished us luck as they drove off.
We enjoyed our simple baguette, cheese and crisp lunch, before heading on again, for the final ride to Coulon.
It was then that my basic line on the map and written directions let me down and as we headed along a long, straight road,(yes into the all-pervading headwind) I realised we’d missed a turn and were going the wrong way. So a little re-jig was needed and we were soon back on track, after having cycled through La Ronde, another of the places that we had visited so often in years gone by.
Once back on track, we cycled into the pretty, canal-side village of Damvix, stopping for another cold drink, and having our bidons refilled at the same time, as it was now not just windy, but incredibly hot too.
From there we cycled through the beautiful waterside roads of the Venise Verte to the stunning village of Arçais, where the tourist boats were lined up.on the little beach, below the chateau.
Then it was the final.ride along the beautiful canal-side roads into Coulon, and the camp site for the night.
If I’m honest, we were so exhausted during the last bit of the ride that we couldn’t fully appreciate the beauty of this place, but we head out the same way tomorrow, so we will get to do it all again, when we’re fresh, and able to enjoy it.
So yes, tonight we’re exhausted, but the tent is up, I’ve stood in the toilet block and put some power in my phone, and Andy had popped to the supermarket to grab some supper. We can’t face going out!
But we’ll enjoy bread, cheese, tomatoes and wine by the tent this evening and I have a feeling that we’ll be in bed by 9.
Let’s hope for a Boney M free zone tonight!
On again tomorrow to a place that we’ve passed through, more times than we can remember, but have never explored. So we’ve booked a couple of nights in an Apartment in Rochefort and hopefully this time, I will get to ride across the Transporter Bridge!
Vaucluse Dreamer 