by Philip

Miles : 52. Ascent : 1,483’.

*** due to a lack of internet tonight, photos will be posted tomorrow ***

For the first time on this trip we had an AirBnB which required us to clean it before leaving – or pay €50 extra. We found a long list of cleaning jobs stuck to the fridge and had a long discussion about whether we wanted to do them all or just pay up. In the end we decided that €50 sounded like a meal out, so we set the alarm for 6:30 to give us time to clean. 

We had searched for bakers on our route so we could buy bread and pastries – only to find none. The search had, however, listed our host, who we knew was a caterer – so we asked if she could provide – and she could! Her husband came round at 8:30 with a tray containing a baguette and selection of mini viennoiserie – and a little jug of local apple juice. The owners had 24 acres of land and apart from a menagerie of goats, chickens and a Vietnamese pot-bellied pig, they can host up to 15 people in three properties, and often host weddings. They have a young friend in Bordeaux who is a passionate artisan baker – he makes the baguettes and pastries, freezes them, and our hosts then bake them so we had the benefit of fresh bread and pastries without having to go many miles out of our way to find breakfast and lunch … although it would have made our day an awful lot easier if we had made that detour …

We congratulated ourselves on being away by 9:25, and rode down the driveway to the road, noting that new trees had been planted on either side of the drive, which in 50 years time will form a wonderful avenue. Such foresight!

The ride started cold, and was on a very straight road directly south. We had to contend with traffic which was something of a novelty and we complained about it, wishing we weren’t on the road. We’d had to come some way off EV1 to find accommodation for last night, and this was the price. We thought. “Be careful what you wish for”, they say (whoever “they” are). After two miles we turned into a smaller road, and then Komoot sent us down a trail. It seemed fine at first, but soon deteriorated into a sand trap. It was a wide path with very fine, loose, sand about a foot deep, and for at least half the time it was impossible to ride – our bikes are very heavy with the luggage, and we were skidding all over the place. We both engaged “walk assist” which helped, but it was still incredibly hard work. After the first chunk of the trail we reviewed where we were and felt we didn’t know whether going on or back would be better, and decided to push on. Komoot excelled itself … presenting us with a locked 5-bar gate across the next path it wanted us to use. The saving grace was a pair of deer to brighten the moment, but (a lot) more sand awaited. We plodded on, removing bits of tree from wheels and chains as we went. Mr B flew in front of us a couple of times, encouraging us on. Some of the land was farmed, with enormous irrigators – one was running, and we had to go underneath it – a welcome dousing as we were a bit hot and bothered by this stage. Lizards scuttled about in the sand, and after a total of three very hard miles we found a proper bike trail. We’ve never been so pleased to see tarmac – bumpy, but very welcome. To give an indication of the difficulty riding through the sand, I used 11% of my bike’s battery getting through those three miles … my average on the trip so far has been 0.5% per mile. It was a real workout!

After a very pretty few miles on the trail, which was hilly in places, we reached the “Col du Château d’eau” proudly announcing its elevation of 32m. We came to a quiet road through coniferous forest – we saw one car in 20 minutes of riding. We had agreed to stop for breakfast/elevenses at 12 miles, and found a convenient wall to sit on and enjoy our selection of pastries – they were delicious. I started this blogpost during this stop, and suggested that Liz go on while I wrote for a bit. It turned out that 2.5 mini pastries wasn’t quite enough so a snack bar made up the difference. 

The next 12 miles, our agreed distance between breakfast and lunch, were rather less eventful. The first half was on the quiet road through coniferous, managed forest with fire breaks every few hundred metres, each named with an  engraved sign at the side of the road. We passed a military site, including an observatory (with both optical and radio telescopes) and a sign suggesting there was a missile site of some sort. Coming round one corner there was suddenly a lighthouse in the middle of the forest, presumably visible from sea, but it did seem to be an odd place to build it. We turned off the road onto a more typical EV1 trail, still tarmac, which continued to wind through the forest but with a lot of ups and downs. Komoot suggests that our total climb will be around 1,000’ – by lunch we’d done 880’ (*). We went through a large collection of big wooden chalets in the woods – hard to tell if they are people’s homes or holiday properties. We saw a number of cyclists in both directions including a trailer with two dogs in, but apart from a single jay, a magpie and a lizard we have seen little wildlife. Lunch, the same spread as usual with some left over frittata, was enjoyed on a bench at a junction of cycle paths and was very peaceful.  

The trail continued in similar style after lunch, through coniferous forest and quite hilly, but quiet and not too hot despite the forecast of 30 degrees today. We approached the resort of Lacanau where the trail seemed to be marked up for their half marathon at the end of the month – we’re glad that we neither had to deviate from the path nor jostle with runners today. The markings were distances for the run, and also many of the roots under the path had been marked with wide swathes of pink – looking as if someone had painted calamine lotion on them! We had to cross a couple of roads – but instead of a junction we found ourselves going through tunnels made from circular concrete tubes – it felt a bit like going into a sewer!  Suddenly a large casino appeared – interesting that it had been built out of town. With a few more hills and some headwind as we turned west for a while, we got back to the coast. We’ve not been far away from the sea all day, but now we could hear it, and instead of riding through our own dunes, there were proper sand dunes between us and it, and the occasional tantalising glimpse of blue. At one point we both heard a dull “whump” – a distant explosion of some kind perhaps, or a sonic boom. Liz remembered the missile site and said she thought it had mentioned testing in its sign so maybe that’s what it was. As I sat on a bench writing that last sentence a fighter jet flew overhead so my money’s on a sonic boom. 

The trail continued to be wonderful – a meandering route through this is vast forest, the light dappling through the canopy with the ground sloping from left to right, with almost total quiet. While the day is hot, being in the forest has made the riding very comfortable. A tea break with palmier biscuits was very nice before the last twelve miles to this evening’s accommodation. 

After tea, with one interruption from a very loud cicada, Komoot said we were four miles from our accommodation and told us to turn left up a road. This took us away from EV1 – we had a debate and decided to stay on the path, only to find 20m later that it was closed for forestry operations, so we ended up on the road anyway. It soon became apparent what the forestry operations were. Having heard about wildfires in southern France in August, we’d seen a small area of burnt trees on the trail where we stopped for tea and biscuits – but this area was another level. There were vast piles of tree trunks cut and neatly piled by the side of the road – all about 8’ long, some charred and some not. There was massive devastation – there must be many square miles of burnt trees – and we wondered if some of the tree cutting was preventative – making new firebreaks while the fires burned. Some of the logs were charred, and we watched as the driver of a logging truck loaded up from one of the stacks with great skill. As we approached Lège Cap Ferret there was a definitive edge where the fire had stopped – with no obvious reason. It’s possible that there was a massive amount of water used to prevent it getting closer to the town – but at the edge there was a line of burned trees and then the next line were unscathed. The headwind as we turned into the town was intense and explained why these fires had spread so far and so fast, and reminded us of the fires in the Palisades area of California we rode through last year – the difference here being no damage (that we could see) to any property. It was still a sobering end to today’s ride before we turned into our suburban street, parked our panniers and headed back out to find the nearest supermarket. 

*Komoot lied … we did 1,483’