Beffes to Malesherbes

Thursday December 16, 2010

My campsite for the night in Beffes, France.

The view of the canal beside my campsite in Beffes, France.

I had a solid sleep beside the canal, and despite the snow, it didn't seem to be particularly cold. Maybe I was acclimatising?

I was on the road by 10:30 am, and much of the day was uneventful, I was riding alongside either a canal or a river for much of the day and so the terrain was mostly flat but slightly downhill as I rode towards Paris.

There were periods of snow in the morning, which turned into rain in the afternoon and evening as the day warmed slightly.

I stopped for lunch in a town called Gien, where I bought a baguette and ate it with salami, cheese and tomato beside the river. It was rather windy, wet and cold though. Hmm, all the days are starting to sound the same aren't they?

Stopped by the Loire River in Gien for lunch.

Looking over the Loire River in Gien, France.

I continued on just after 5 pm, so there wasn't much light left in the day. Not far out of Gien, I punctured again! What a drag! I stopped in someone's driveway and fixed it in the dark, then continued on. 

Puncture number n for the trip, where n is an integer > 30. And no, that's not a castle wall, but someone's front fence. On the D44 in Les Maisons Neuves, France.

The rain became quite persistent and I was soaking wet and cold by the time I rolled into a little town called Lorris where I stopped for tea at around 7:30 pm. I located the kebab shop and ate a kebab with fries and coke. The manager seemed to take quite a liking to me, and was quite interested in where I'd been and where I was from. Every customer that walked into the store he would tell them excitedly that I was from Australia - I guess it wasn't every day they got an Australian cyclo-tourer come into their shop, it'd be something quite different to the usual. The manager also offered for me to set up the tent in his back yard next door, which was a tempting offer but I knew I needed to push on and get to Paris. He also refused to charge me for the meal, despite my willingness to pay, so I got it for free. What a good bloke! He said he'd like for me to send him a postcard from Melbourne when I got back, and he gave me the address (I have no idea where I put it though!)

When I was leaving, another young bloke in the shop (the kind of bloke who we would call a bogan in Australia, with his car being the equivalent of a red Holden Commodore, insisted on leading me out of the town so that I didn't get lost. So the arrangement was that he drove his car slowly while I followed along behind. I'm sure I could have navigated my way out myself (it was only a small town after-all) but nonetheless his guidance worked fine and I was appreciative. Before he let me go, he gave me his phone to talk to his girlfriend who was on the other end - her English was better than his - and she gave me some directions about which roads to take and which turns to take. Again, after having navigated my way through some 8000 kilometres of new roads through foreign countries for the past 3 months, I think I could have managed my navigation towards Paris then, but it was very kind of them to help out anyway.

I really got into the zone after that. The light rain persisted, and it was cold but I was warm while riding the bike, and I just listened to podcasts and pumped out the kilometres, rode another for another three hours (60 km) after tea, through several small towns and mostly along quiet roads. I eventually stopped in a town called Malesherbes just after midnight where I found a bit of a playground and skate park, with some open grass beside a river where I could pitch the tent. The ground was soaking wet and muddy, and my clothes were soaking wet. It was a relief to get out of them and into a dry sleeping bag for a good night's sleep, cosy inside my trusty tent.

My route for the day, Beffes to Malesherbes.

An overview of my route so far from Rome.

Ride Stats:

Distance: 159 km
Average: 18.4 km/h
Maximum: 44.1 km/h
Time: 8:40:26

Total Ascent: 609 m

Total Descent: 716 m