The Wandering Idiot

What a day, what a day…things started off a little late…After the night out with Fabrice and his friends we all had a little bit of a lie in…was ok, but the day started at about 10.30am or so, which is later than I like.

Jerome’s knee is not happy. We were to make a ride today together, but this morning Jerome took the call to sit out today and tomorrow and meet me in Marseilles. He’d take a train there and we’d meet up again later. Not a brilliant start to the day…I know he was deeply disappointed to have to sit it out, but I think it’s the right choice. He struggled with the knee yesterday and if he does keep trying to push it he won’t be able to continue…too much too soon I suppose. We’ll see how things go when I reach Marseilles, but by the looks of the map – it’s a hilly ride from there on out, so we will see if his knee will be up for it or not.

I set off on my own.

The day was absolutely lovely. The bike felt good – my Brooks saddle is taking shape and calming down, the weather was great, and I was just so, so happy to be on my bike.

My first stop was the fortified city of Aigues-Mortes…had a quick coffee there, feigned interest in the history of the place and moved on. The rest of the day was spent cycling through the Camargue national park area…salt flats, reed beds, ponds…really fantastic, flat roads and scenery. I could write more about the bulls and horses, herons, and other wildlife…but I won’t.

There were two other things that happened today that were totally awesome!

First…I hit 2000km for the trip…woop woop!

Second – and way cooler – was that I passed some more touring cyclists today! And this time, I flagged them down and we stopped – had a talk and took a good 20 min break on the side of the road!

Victor and Kim are 8 months into their 9 month tour from South Korea to Portugal. They are almost to their destination and it was really inspiring to hear their stories of travel through eastern Asia and on into the ’stans’. They were fully loaded up on two mountain bikes and pulling trailers…camping all the way – but did mention that Europe was the hardest place to camp for them.

While sitting on the side of the road – lo and behold – another tourer turns up! Siegfried was touring by himself from Hamburg to Portugal! A month into his trip – he takes two months off every year to go on tour by himself. He’s a motorcycle mechanic and dealership owner – but spends his free time on a 10 year old Koga Miyata touring bicycle!

Was pretty cool. Suddenly in the middle of the Camargue national park area, a German, two South Koreans, and an American were all shooting the shit about their respective journeys.

We noticed the top half of a fishing rod taped to the side of Siegfried’s Koga Miyata

‘What’s that for?’

‘The dogs…give them a whack with it’

I had been chased but didn’t realise that people were arming themselves…

Then the Koreans piped up,

‘We have a baseball bat with us for the dogs!’

Apparently, stray dogs are a bit more of a problem in central Asia…

Tonight I am being hosted by family friends of Jerome’s family. They have been absolutely awesome. For dinner they treated me to steak from the local Camargue bulls.

Both Jean and Nicole are lovers of birds, the salt marshes, and the environment – so naturally they live in the most appropriate area!

Tomorrow I am cycling on my own to Marseilles. I had a look at the map and I can tell it’s going to be a long, hilly day. I am worried about reaching the city at dark so I will be setting off very, very early in the morning.

By the way – I am having some trouble with the Google Earth maps…so please disregard my map page until further notice….

Catch you all soon!

74km Bicycled Today

2042km to Date