Normandy/Brittany

I am now 3 days in to my little solo adventure through Normandy and Brittany. 

The first day was getting down to Portsmouth Harbour to catch the ferry across to France. I started from Guildford, having got the train from Leatherhead. It was pretty hard work getting out of Guildford climbing up The Mount, but after that it was a very nice route.  I stopped at the pub in Sheet village for lunch.

Then, for the most part, I followed the Shipwrights Trail down to Portsmouth. I arrived well before the ferry departure time of 22:45 so went in to Portsmouth to have some supper.

After a lengthy wait in the check in queue and then the holding queue, in increasing cold, I finally cycled up the ramp on to the parking deck where the crew secured my bike. There were about 15 or so cyclists making the crossing. I got chatting to a couple of chaps who were cycling to Morocco!

It was well past bed time so I made my way to my cabin. 

Looks pretty cosy doesn't it? It's a pity I was only able to spend 5 hours in it! They started waking us up at 04:45. Bleary eyed I scrambled out of bed to get some breakfast before we docked in Caen. 

So it was an early and cold start to the first day in France. 

I suspected I might not get much sleep so I had only planned a short ride of about 50km to Bayeux for the first day. On the way I was taken aback by the number of D-Day war memorials to commemorate the dead and also to acknowledge the gratitude for the liberation from the Nazis. Amongst other sites, I visited the British War Memorial in Ver-sur-Mer. 

It's a very moving place and I would recommend a visit. 

I arrived in Bayeux just in time to have crab and chips for lunch...

before setting up camp at the excellent municipal campsite. 

I was feeling pretty exhausted due to the lack of sleep on the ferry, so turned in very early after making myself some Uncle Ben's spicy Mexican rice. It was very tasty and ready in 3 minutes - amazing.  

I started pretty early the next morning. My target was the town of Mortain, a little over 100km away. This was through a very rural part of France. There's not a lot here other than some scenic farmland. I was just about to resort to making my own coffee, due to the lack of civilization, when strangely I came upon a bungee jumping centre at a disused viaduct. They had a cafe and I had a very nice Tarte au pomme with my coffee, which provided me with just about enough fuel to get out of the valley on the other side. 

After escaping the valley I had a lot of this. 

This is the old Vire to Mortain railway which is now a Voie Vert. It has a very good surface and is fairly flat. Although there was a section of about 10 miles that was a constant 3% gradient. I thought it was never going to end. 

I arrived at the campsite in Mortain about 3pm. I couldn't find an office to check in but was told to go up to the tourist office in town. They were closed so I guess it's free tonight!  No restaurants were open either so I bought a can of cassoulet at a corner shop and had that at the campsite. 

I've been going much more slowly than I had thought. I think it's the panniers. It's not just the extra weight but I think also the wind drag. I can feel it's more effort once I get beyond a certain speed. I had planned for 4-5 hours cycling a day but it's going to be more like 6 hours. But that's ok.

As I mentioned earlier, this trip is a solo one. It's a bit of an experiment to see how I get on on my own. So far it's been okay but I did start talking to myself this afternoon...