First things first…..an important update that I failed to mention before. Yesterday morning we lost our burner in the most dramatic fashion. Basically I went to put some water on for tea and asked Marc why the gas canister was hissing ….surely that can’t be right. He had a little fiddle around to try and see what was wrong and then a big whoosh of flames engulfed him (no harm done) and signalled the end of tea and coffee in the morning….as if this challenge wasn’t hard enough !

Anyway back to today, Giorno sei. It turns out that if you are three men and a tent and you unexpectedly have some time on your hands because you are basically amazing and you arrived at your campsite super early then what happens next is you get slightly tiddly, behave like 11 eleven year olds and just generally be utterly ridiculous. As if it wasn’t enough that Marc repeatedly greated the waitress in the campsite restaurant with a jolly “au revoir” every time she came to our table and twice when we saw her elsewhere on the site then this happened…

In spite of Marc repeatedly saying goodbye to the waitress she offers us a local liqueur at the end of the meal and so the evening finishes with a “Marc de Bourgogne” straightener (nope no idea either but “Mademoiselle au revoir” seemed very keen we have it!) and then it’s off to bed….thankfully!

The day starts well with 10 miles of long slow drop down into a cold icy valley and then disappointingly but I guess not unsurprisingly a long, long hard climb up to around 2500 feet, our highest point yet. The terrain is really changing now as we enter into the Rhône Alpes….

Then of course we are rewarded by a massive exhilarating drop and some spectacular scenery…..

……across and through the Beaujolais valley (I made that up, probably shouldn’t have done….but there were definitely vines and it feels like we are in the right sort of area and it could be where Beaujolais comes from) and then all of a sudden we are in Belleville having coffee and we have already done 28 miles for the day.

Unfortunately there has been another casualty on the very fast descent. The solar panel strapped to the top of my panniers is nowhere to be seen. Whilst this is a big loss (we haven’t had to plug into a socket since the ferry) it is just not worth retracing our steps on the off chance we might find it. We will I think have to try and find a replacement though.

The view across the valley is spectacular. Unfortunately we also have our first breakage today (if you discount the loss of my pillow and now my solar panel and frankly how could you!!!) in the form of a bolt holding Dans very heavy panniers on. Without it the whole thing is lopsided and in danger of collapsing into the wheel. Fortunately I have two replacement bolts with me so it’s an easy fix and we are on our way again.

We crack on at an amazing pace across the valley and by 1430 we are within spitting distance of our campsite and we have already covered 75 miles. The last 3 miles though are yet another good example of when sat navs go rogue…..

When we do finally make it to the site we take a quick vote and, by two votes to one (sorry Dan) we make the bold decision to keep pedalling to a site we can see on the map about 26 miles further on. The challenge of adding miles today is offset by less  miles tomorrow which we know will be difficult as we get into the foothills of the Alps. Cue pictures of Dan questioning our decision making process and coveting the campsite he is never going to have…..

We take another quick pitstop to refuel and then press on. It’s hot, hard tiring going and it’s hard to keep your head straight when you know that every mile, every pedal stroke is one that you didn’t have to do today. Now we are getting into the foothills of the Alps proper we are of course taking miles, and climbing out of tomorrow.

Very bizarrely the exact same pannier bolt that broke on Dans bike now also breaks on Marc’s bike…..its an easy repair again but my “two spare bolts” are now my “no spare bolts”.

Eventually after 103 miles and 5500 feet of climbing (for those of you who are not sure what this actually means it is MASSIVE and we have essentially turned ourselves inside out!) and at about 1830 we arrive at Lac Paladru our absolutely, definitely final, final destination for the day……

….where a great meal and our still ridiculously small tent await. What a day!

Final update for this evening before I collapse, a massive thank you to all of the NFU Mutual Customer Operations team and wishing them well for their Winston’s Wish Samosa sale tomorrow…..thank you everyone involved, you are amazing.

As always please, please do take a moment to visit our Just Giving page and donate what you can. Thank you.