The ride today was, easy, short, and flat…but none the less…we were back on the bikes and for me – that was awesome. The days spent in Montpellier were very nice…relaxing, partying, and what not…but I realised, especially this morning, that I am happiest when on the bike…happiest when there is nothing to think about but pushing my bike to the next destination. Feeling miles and miles of tarmac moving underneath my bike.
I love riding my bike.
I love getting up early – having a good size breakfast and pushing into my day now. Things are clear when I’m riding. There is no bullshit to deal with, no over complicated thoughts…and if things do come up, I can always burn it through my body…push into the pedals.
Mentally – the ride is much easier now. I feel well into my trip and homesickness is moving away. Gone are the days of teary eyes on the bike and my longing for home – I feel less and less like an idiot for choosing to do this trip. I focus now on reaching Zagreb for Christmas. That’s my main goal. From there I will regroup and look at how to achieve Istanbul. (will the weather be ok? do I have enough money? which roads? Etc.)
Although the ride today was flat, pleasant, and on the sea front, Jerome’s knee is not up to task it seems. He struggled today – it is clear his knee is hurting him. We took three days off – but I have a feeling that his knee really needs to do nothing for two or three weeks. This could be a show stopper for Jerome…at least for now.
From my point of view, I have been happy to wait a bit so he can have some recovery time, but I can’t say that I am open to pausing for a couple of weeks…call it selfish, but my adventure must continue…I finally feel like I understand how to do this trip, and I don’t want to park myself in the south of France for too long.
We have agreed that we will continue to Marseilles together. It’s about 100km from here and we will break the ride up into two days. From there we can see how his knee is and make a decision.
This evening we are being hosted by Fabrice – a local estate agent – in the resort town of Le Grau-du-Roi.
It’s dead here.
You can tell that this place is absolutely pumping in the summer months and would be a great place to be, but now – very, very quiet. Fabrice tells me that in the winter there are about 7k residents here…but in the summer there are 100k+! Quite a difference.
We went to a house party with Fabrice and some of his colleagues – the flat we went to was very cool, top floor, first line on the seafront, nice terrace…everything you could ask for – for a summer home.
It was a very nice evening – meeting people you would never normally meet, trying lots of new foods (duck heart on beetroot for example), and just generally trying to enjoy the moment in the most random of places, with the most random of people. Couchsurfing really exposes you to knew things you never would have dreamed of…it’s a very cool way to travel.
Tomorrow we make our way towards Marseilles with a stop at some friends of Jerome’s…it looks to be the first wet day of a little while, but it’s still warm…hopefully the weather will hold and we can enjoy more lazy miles of beachfront riding….
47km Bicycled Today
1968km to Date
