Days 9-11 – No summer in the Massif Central

Cold rain and despair

I am immortal. Had you notice that? Yes, I will still be a copper dog long after you are all dead and gone. But Daniel is not and he forgets that often. Luckily the gods always find time to send a little reminder of how fragile he is. Day #9 was one of those reminders.

The plan was to skip Châteauneuf-du-Randon and go directly to Issarles. But our map didn’t show clearly the magnitude of the mountains in between. It turns out that Châteauneuf is known because it is a town on the top of a mountain (1265m). Still we felt big…

A huge nail destroyed our rear wheel’s rubber (our first flat tyre!) just outside Châteauneuf. That takes a lot of time: unmount baggage, remove tyre, change rubber, inflate manually, lock baggage to a post, drive to gas station, pump wheel properly, drive back, reassemble baggage. Still we felt big…

As soon as we started mounting the baggage again it started to rain. Really rain. We seeked a restaurant in Châteauneuf for shelter but it was too late, Daniel was soaking wet. The temperature had fallen to 12°C (at noon) and the sun did not shine any more that day.

We decided it was a health risk to continue in the cold rain so we camped in Châteauneuf (losing one day, now we are only 2 days ahead). The mini-towel was wet, the tent was wet, alas, even the sleeping bag was wet. Daniel changed his biking clothes, but he has no winter clothes, his hair was wet. We delayed building the tent until it stop raining… well, we delayed for two hours and then we built the tent under the rain.

During this waiting time we sat (and trembled) in a corner outside of the bathroom building overlooking the campsite. Help? No one helps, people are strange when you’re a stranger. There was a fucking neighbor in a caravan that stared at us the whole time. He didn’t speak to us, did’ come. He just looked from his window. He saw us sit in the corner, saw us have (cold) dinner, saw us pitch the tent. He just stared… the bastard.

Despair was setting in. If it is so cold during the day, how cold will be the night? How will we survive with a wet sleeping bag. I looked at the parked cars with envy, a car would make a perfect waterproof shelter. My mind was blank, I just wanted to warm up. I saw Daniel’s shivering and fear of the coming night… the reminder was clear. Then an inspiration came. The memory of the cold german nights. Aja! A warm bottle! I made a warm bottle out of the camelback and put it inside the sleeping bag between the feet. Oh heaven! Warmth! It got Daniel through the night.

The cold hasn’t given up yet, but at least the rain has. The next two days were increadibly cold. Daniel rode with his jacket on. Every little road we take means a new mountain. Going up warms the legs, going down makes you scream (from cold, wind slows us down to 30kmh downhill!) The day to Yssingeaux was more (higher) than I expected. But we are here.

Food

Just to give you a quick idea of how much Daniel is eating, let’s review a typical day.

Breakfast: cereal, joghurt, banana, pastry.
During the ride: 3 energy bars, banana, nectarine, 1.5L of isotonic drink.
Lunch: Lasagna (restaurant [not typical]), ham sandwich (restaurant, half a baguette).
Dinner: Orange, 820g of lentils (you should see the can of lentils, almost a kilo, devoured without stopping).

Enter Couchsurfing

Now we enter a new phase of the trip. We have met our first couchsurfer! David from Yssingeaux. Ah it was wonderful. A warm bed, no need to pitch the tent, he even cooked for us (chineese!). We have a couch waiting for us in St. Etienne and then comes Lyon, wonderful Lyon where (hopefully) Faustine is waiting for us. The trip is far from over, still soooo much to come, but from now on it looks like we won’t have to camp as much as before… super.

Stats

Day #9: 39km – 2:20h
Day #10: 60km – 2:45h
Day #11: 69km – 4:00h
GPS

Total
757km – 42:13h