26/5 - Day 3 – miles
cycled = 42, total so far 78.
Woke at 7.45 after a reasonable nights sleep. There was
very wide range of animal noises in the night, only some of which I recognised,
and a little bit of activity from a couple of late arrivals.
After breakfast I packed up my tent to find a great big
fat frog right under my groundsheet where my head had been.
I was loaded up and leaving the campsite by 9. My plan was to stay on VV3 and head for the
town of St Meen La Grand – some 30 miles south and then to decide what to do
when I got there – either camp or move on to Mauron or preferably Ploemel.
It was another hot and sunny day with only a light breeze
and I began by retracing my path from yesterday. After only a few miles I was lost again. Now normally, at home my navigation skills
are pretty good and so I think the combination of poor cycle way signage and
poor (or non existent) local road signs had conspired against me again. The result was a few hilly miles on fairly
quiet roads until I stumbled upon the VV once again. All then went well and I reached the village
of Plouasne where I found the small local boulangerie – I stocked up on bread,
ham and orange and the Madame filled my water bottles for me. So far, without exception, the people have
been lovely, always a smile, always helpful, always a cheery ‘bonjour’!
After leaving Plouasne the VV was easy to follow for a
few miles and I stopped for lunch in the woods just off the track. After half
an hour I was on my way only to discover that I was once again lost. I was heading in totally the wrong
direction. This getting lost malarkey
was starting to get unfunny. I rejoined
the route after a section of ‘N’ road – equivalent to a busy ‘A’ road in the UK
– no fun. I reached St Meen La Grand at
2.30. I had ridden 40 miles over pretty
hilly terrain with a loaded bike, in the heat and was feeling pretty done
in. So I decided to stay rather than
pushing on any further. I went to the
local municipal campsite to find it closed (open mid June). After getting directions I found the Tourist
Information Office – located by the towns cycling club – it too was closed
(12.30 on Saturdays). I had no more
campsites listed in my Rough Guide or VV guide.
Stuck for ideas I phoned Helen (home) and asked her to look on the net to see
if there were any nearby campsites.
There were a couple shown a few miles away but, unsure if they would be
open, given yesterdays experience, I decided to opt for a hotel for the night.
I found a room in a little hotel in the town square above
a bar (Le Trois Piliars – 37 Euros). It
was spacious and clean with a massive bathroom, potentially noisy (being above
a bar, opposite a chiming clock and the town fountain) but very welcome.
The first 2 days have shown that finding a open campsite
is a real problem. In summer (mid June
onwards) you would be spoilt for choice, but right now its very difficult. I’ve also been surprised by the lack of
random sites. I expected to stumble
across small private and farm sites as I travelled but have seen none so far.
Given that I’ve cycled over 120km to cover 67km on the VV
map I don’t think it will be realistic to my VV Greenway guide to plan my
journey any longer, indeed given the reasons above my progress is pretty slow
and its clearly unrealistic to think that I will manage a big loop as
planned. I need to rethink.
Right, I’ve rethought; I’m going to forget about trying
to cover a big loop of Brittany. I know
earlier I said that it didn’t matter how far I cycled but in the back of my
mind I had a grand loop planned and I have been giving myself a hard time
because progress has been slow. I will
also try to make it a policy to phone ahead to make sure campsites are open –
if they are not then I will head somewhere else, hopefully to an open campsite
and if not then a hotel.
For dinner tonight I had an Indian. The Taste of India, just off the town square
is the smallest I’ve ever been in and one of the best. It’s a room 14 feet square seating 14 people
at a push. I had tandoori chicken
followed by an excellent chicken curry (hot) with free poppadums and a couple
of singha beers. I was back in my room
by 9 – another early night.
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