dst. (km) Today 151.09 Trip total ?? Odometer 1870.7
Good news or bad news first? The good news is that sometime during the night it finally cooled down and now is slightly overcast and around 20°C. Perfect weather for cycling. The bad news is that my cold is now much worse, probably bronchitis judging by the coughing and spitting!
Fantastic weather to ride in, cool and a light mist, so little that nothing stayed damp, just enough to keep me cool. It warmed up gradually later in the day, but stayed overcast the whole time.
Bordeaux was quite a hassle to get into, as most large cities are. Roadworks on the motorways meant that there were diversions all over the place. The side road I was on ended up being the motorway for quite a way. Further in I found a cyclepath labelled “Bordeaux Centre” and followed it for ages, then just as I was feeling hopeful that I was actually going to reach the centre of the city, it expired in a building site in a dodgy part of the docks on the wrong side of the river.
Bordeaux struck me as being overwhelmingly big. A big city, big traffic. It’s probably the largest place I’ve had to ride into. Surprisingly enough, once I’d made it across the river I found the hostel easily enough.
The Garonne river is quite something to anyone from Australia. We just don’t have rivers on that scale! The current looks frighteningly strong, full of enormous eddies.
The hostel is very new and clean, it even has a bicycle room, but there isn’t anything to lock the bikes to inside the room, so you have to trust all the other people with access.
Route
Saintes(45.75,-0.6333333), D6 to Thenac, Tesson, Gémozac, Toutvent, Mortagne-s-Gironde, D145 to St Thomas de Conac, St Bonnet-s-Girone, St Ciers-s-Gironde, D9 to Blaye, D669 to St-Andre-de-Cubzac, St Vincent de Paul, Bordeaux(48.32158,3.20107).
