Brittany Journal - day 5

28/5 - Day 5 – miles cycled = 22, total so far 138.

After another good nights sleep, only disturbed a couple of times by a distant dog barking, I woke to another sunny morning.  I had tea and decided to stay for another night.  This would give me more time to explore Josselin in more detail and then take in a short day ride.  

After a wash and brush up I cycled into town to collect breakfast (2 croissants) and a cheese and ham baguette for lunch before deciding to cycle along the towpath towards Pontivy to check out the route for tomorrow toward the Lac Du Guirlidan. 

Before setting off I happened across the Tour de Bretagne classic vehicle rally passing through town. I spent a really enjoyable hour watching 500 vehicles of all shapes and sizes pass by, along with loads of locals (it turns out that today was a national holiday).

I then set off on a 22 mile round trip along the Nantes Brest canal.  It was an excellent towpath, wide and smooth – perfect. I had lunch in the sunshine sitting by a lock on the way back – French baguettes are always something special, why can we get bread like that in the UK?

I returned to the campsite and paid another 6 euros for another night before heading back into Josselin to explore some more.  Its such a beautiful place and I’ll be sad to leave, I’ll definitely be back on day. 

By the river in town I met Mike and Chris from Poole.  They are cycling around Brittany for three weeks to mark their 60^th birthdays. We had a good chat about routes and campsites and then I discovered that they were heading to my campsite – result! company.

I had a good walk all around Josselin and had an excellent Caesar salad, beer and coffee in the square whilst people watching.  After sitting sunbathing and snoozing for an hour I headed back to the campsite.  

On the way back I bumped into a couple on a tandem recumbent.  Scott was from Melbourne Australia and Nikki was from San Francisco and they were headed to my camp site too.  They were cycling from Brest to Istanbul over 8 weeks on Eurovelo 6. It turns out that two Canadians and two Tasmanians had also arrived while I was away.  Add to that Mike and Chris and it had turned into an international cyclist meet all of a sudden.

I spent the rest of the day and the evening chatting and drinking with my new cycling buddies and had a lovely time – this was my first non-early night of the trip!

Side note: despite washing stuff as I go, both me and my belongings are starting to smell.