Jour cinq – Occupe-toi de tes oignons
Shorty after we finish our improvised meal in Vivonne the temperature drops to somewhere around minus eleventy billion and so it’s not long until we are tucked up and trying to get warm.
It is bitterly cold overnight (and noisy as we seem to be trapped between a train line and a main road) so sleep is yet again a little bit elusive.
It is still absolutely bitter when we wake around 7am and consequently no one wants to get out of their warm sleeping bag. It’s takes a good 25 minutes before we make a start and one of us (it’s me) makes a bolt for the loo and the day begins.
So far I have not once used the phrase “Dan the destroyer” not because there hasn’t been repeated cause to but because I didn’t want to seem unfair or unkind. I kid you not though he is like a walking taking living breathing disaster area.
Obviously you already know about the square rear wheel and now lack of rear brake. He has also broken the clasp on his helmet and fashioned some kind of half arsed fix with cable ties and then today….well today please read on.
With only 66 ish miles today we are a bit slow to get going and after a quick stop at the supermarket where they seem to have their Christmas decorations out early …
… we stop for a late second breakfast at around 11am although those are definitely not Heinz Baked Beans!
It’s whilst we are stopped, and this is after about 25 miles, Dan tells us that he his finding it really hard to pedal and he thinks maybe he is a little bit ill. He also mentions that he adjusted his front wheel earlier and a quick inspection reveals he has tightened it so ridiculously hard that he has squeezed the frame onto the wheel so it couldnt spin even if it wanted to! Once he loosens it (I can’t even move it) surprise surprise his wheel is free and spinning.
We then crack on for another 25 or 30 miles before lunch. The scenery has totally changed. We have left the agricultural heart land and moved into much greener and hillier surroundings….it is all absolutely beautiful though.
When we stop for lunch (baguettes, cheese ham and salad are now the daily staple)
Dan decides now is a good time to tell us he is feeling “quite sore in the swonicles area”. Upon further inspection he realises (after 45 miles!) that he has his cycle shorts on back to front!
A quick change (and hopefully the picture below will trigger a heated debate that will resolve the age old question “should you wear underwear under your cycle shorts?….answers on a postcard please) and then everything seems much more to his liking for the rest of the day.
It’s a much harder slog to Rochechuart, our stop tonight, than we had expected and it takes a good deal longer than we thought with lots and lots of climbs…….but eventually we arrive and after stocking up on essential supplies …
….and settle in for beer, pasta, baguette and bed!
It seems appropriate to end today’s blog. with a picture of Dan dreaming about things that might have been and the perfectly good rear wheel that he used to have.
Finally another plea for your help now i’m afraid….we are well over a third of the way through our challenge but not with our fundraising. I can see that many, many people (in the hundreds) are viewing the blog so if you are enjoying it then please, please make a donation. If you are not enjoying it then stop viewing it!