Annemarie & Nigel’s Wedding
THE WESSEX NEWSLETTER Edited independently in our three areas and published quarterly. Please contact your section or the access the club website for information on any events
DA SECRETARY Peter Loakes, Church Cottage, West Stafford, DT2 8AB (01305) 263272 BOURNEMOUTH & DISTRICT SECTION David Chesworth, 52 Newstead Road, Bournemouth BH6 3HL (01202) 432852 SALISBURY SECTION Alan Clarke, “Hill House”, Kelsey Road, Salisbury SP1 1JR (01722) 322188 WEST DORSET SECTION Mike Durham, 74 Westhill, Wyke Regis, Weymouth DT4 9NE (01305) 770140
Main Calendar Dates For 2007 Sunday 24th Mar Sunday 25th Mar
Cycle Jumble, Weymouth 50 in 4
Ken Reed Shawn Shaw
01305 772654 01202 685014
Sunday 1st Apr Sunday 1st Apr
Dorset Coastlet 100km Dorset Coast 200km (PBP)
Peter Loakes Peter Loakes
01305 263272 01305 263272
Sunday 15th Apr
Devon and Dorset Downs 300km (PBP)
Peter Loakes
01305 263272
Sunday 22nd Apr
100 in 8
Shawn Shaw
01202 685014
Saturday 28th Apr
Cycle Jumble Sale
Jim Hatton
01202 280889
Sunday 29th Apr Sunday 29th Apr Sunday 29th Apr
New Forest 50/Day Out 100km New Forest Excursion 200km New Forest 300km (PBP)
John Ward John Ward John Ward
01590 671855 01590 671855 01590 671855
W/E 8th -9th Sep
St Lo Concentration in Normandy
Norman Payne
01202 695179
Sunday 9th Sep Sunday 9th Sep
New Forest 50 and Coast 100km New Forest On & Off Shore 200km
John Ward John Ward
01590 671855 01590 671855
Sunday 16th Sep
Dorset Dirt 50km offroad
Ken Reed
01305 772654
Sunday 23rd Sep
Dorset Delight 200km
Peter Loakes
01305 263272
Sunday 7th Oct
Gridiron 100km
Terry Walsh
01202 247888
ALL WESSEX ACTIVITIES CAN BE FOUND ON:
www.wessexctc.org
Spring 2007 New cycling strip specifically for the Bournemouth Section is being designed and it assumes a real possibility of coming to fruition. Ralph Huckle is handling the negotiations and reporting to the committee. He gives you an advance announcement on page five. The main points are decided. Blue and yellow with the symbol of the Wyvern (a symbol for Wessex) on back, large and central, and on the front, it is a small badge. Here is the second draft of the back view, but details are not finalised. Watch this space as they say. The section intends to raise our profile a bit and the committee agreed recently to produce a simple “flyer� promoting the section which will be distributed to all the local cycle shops. With a similar aim, the website has undergone a major re-design too and I hope that it looks fresher and has a more professional appearance. The gallery feature now allows for an on-screen slide show and any frames can be downloaded at full resolution. You might like to be able to do this if you are in any of them! The season of major events is almost on us now and we aim to post photographs wherever possible. We wish you a happy new season ahead.
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Keith Matthews - Editor Cycle Ink #144
If it is of interest to your members we have copies of the SW region National Byway map to give away. It takes in Winchester , Salisbury , Shaftesbury, a waymarked route of some 154 miles. Anyone passing can call in and ask for one, for those not in our area send an SAE and we’ll send them out. Cycle Centre Manager Sandy Balls Estate Ltd
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What’s On ? Blackmore Vale Section Rides Cycle Rides arranged by Richard & Margaret Nicholl. All rides meet at the Cafe at 10:00am for coffee, departing at 10:30am. Please note that some rides are on a Saturday and some on a Sunday. Details (01963) 32840 Sat 10th MAR
MEET: EAST STOUR, Udder Farm Shop LUNCH: Child Okeford, Post Office Tea Rooms
Sun
25th
MAR
MEET: STOURHEAD, National Trust Cafe LUNCH: Crockerton, Furniture Store
Sat
7th
APR
MEET: MILBORNE PORT, Wheathill Lane Garden Centre LUNCH: Yetminster, Crafty Times Art Gallery
Sun
22nd
APR
MEET: SHALFORD, Crestmoor Garden nr Wincanton Racecourse LUNCH: Cranmore, Steam Railway
Sat 5th MAY
MEET: STOURHEAD, National Trust Cafe LUNCH: Brokerswood, Woodland Park
Sun 20th MAY
MEET: SHERBORNE, Castle Garden Centre LUNCH: Rampisham
Sat 2nd JUN
MEET: STURMINSTER NEWTON, Poets Corner Cafe LUNCH: Bere Regis
Sun 17th JUN
MEET: SHAFTESBURY, John Peel Cafe LUNCH: Knowlton
Sat 30th JUN
MEET: CROCKERTON, Furniture Store LUNCH: Salisbury Plain
Informal Wayfarers Rides to Burley This ride happens every Saturday and is completely informal. There is no leader and no back up, but generally an experienced cyclist somewhere around. The route is designed for beginners but joined in by all abilities.
Start 08:45 at Pioneer Supermarket, Christchurch every Saturday
Or just make your own way to the New Forest Tea Rooms, Burley for 10:00 3
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CHRISTCHURCH BICYCLE CLUB
Mike Walsk
I am a lapsed member of the above having joined to ensure sufficient numbers when it was reformed. I also bought the kit. I gave this kit to friends whom I first met on the TransAmerica ride. Subsequent to the ride across America I and my eldest son have stayed with them in their home just below Perth, Western Australia and they have stayed with me and another TransAmerica rider in Leicester. On their way home to Australia they stopped in Las Vegas and the hotel was hosting a MASSIVE bike expo. This expo was only open to the trade. In his words:Trish (his wife) suggested that I be cheeky and just walk in, Trade had to pay $25 but I assume they had to demonstrate they where trade. So, dressed in a Christchurch Club shirt and an Occupational Safety Conference badge pinned to my breast (remarkably similar to the bike Expo badge) I walked in as bold as brass and no one asked me for anything. So much for the security concerns of public gatherings in the USA. I was like a kid in a candy shop, no idea what to look at first, I wandered around I can't describe the amount and variety of stuff there, trust me my eyes where feasting on this gathering from all corners of the globe free samples and information tucked under my arms, I noticed a bunch of guys standing in a line, I joined the line I thought there must be something worth while at the end of the short wait!! Eddy Merckxs was signing posters of himself circa 1970. A smile, pleased to meet you, and a hand shake later and my grin is from ear to ear. The signed poster is now framed and hanging on the wall in our house -all due to your shirt, could not have got in there without it. Guess I should have dashed upstairs grabbed me camera and had a photo with Eddy and me in your club shirt but maybe that would of been pushing my luck
I have just received this photo with Trish modelling one of the tops with her new bike; incidentally their dog’s name is Barney.
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Coming Soon . . .
Ralph Huckle
Talking of Christchurch Bicycle Club Clothing, we are planning our own for the Bournemouth Section!
Customised Clothing for Bournemouth Section of Wessex C.T.C.
We are currently negotiating on customised clothing for the Section. Details of the kit and the placing of orders will be posted on www.wessexctc.org and also distributed to active riders shortly * The design will incorporate the Wyvern. * To define “shortly�, I have yet to receive the revised design fromthe company, however, I did manage to speak to them last night and they have promised it for this week. Then I have to get it finally approved by the committee members which will take further time. I am also mindful of the fact that the Potterers including me will be leaving for Majorca on 17th March for two weeks. Perhaps it would be better to say that details will be posted in April!
Ralph Huckle CHRISTCHURCH BICYCLE CLUB Talking of the Christchurch Bicycle Club again, some members may have noticed that their website is temporarily down. While this is being sorted out, we are hosting their runs list on our pages at:
www.bournemouthctc.org/cbc1.htm
CYCLING IN THE ARDECHE & CEVENNES Repeating our new venture of dealing long articles, we present this tour offering by Penny & Damian Buckley only on the website. Liberally illustrated with colour photographs it is well worth a read. After page 20 in this issue
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TOUR DU CANADA
Mike Walsk
This photograph was taken last summer in Canada with some new Bournemouth Jubilee fans.
I was on CycleCanada’s Tour du Canada and I will try and provide a few notes on the ride for the next Newsletter.
JUNE CURRY - The Cookie Lady
Mike Walsk
Every cyclist who has ridden the Transamerica Trail knows about June Curry, aka The Cookie Lady. From her home in tiny Afton near the entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway, she has been feeding and providing lodging to cross-country cyclists since 1976. The Cookie Lady's hospitality is the cyclist's reward for completing what some describe as the worst climb on the entire transcontinental route. The road up to Afton cuts back on itself in a series of wicked hairpins, one of them so tight that a sign warns cars to slow to 5 mph. At each, a cyclist has to choose between following the road's full curve for thirty or forty gruelling feet, or cutting across the two lanes to ride straight up the hill and substitute seven or eight feet of even more impossibly pitched climb. It's not a
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particularly long ride up but it's challenging -- when I arrived in Afton, I needed a cookie! (The experience of eastbounders is very different. For them, the Cookie Lady marks the end of their climbing, and indeed presages the end of their entire journey. Eastbounders coast down to June's house from the Blue Ridge Parkway, then down that nasty hill to the Virginia coastal plain, where they have three or four more days of rolling riding before arriving at Yorktown.) The Cookie Lady lives in a modest, charming brick house on Afton's main (only) road. Two doors down she keeps another house, a remarkable building which she calls the "Bike Museum". There, the kitchen is fully stocked with food, drink, basic first aid materiel and other provisions for hungry, thirsty or tired cyclists. Four large rooms are filled with books, photos, journals, scrapbooks, maps, and memorabilia left or sent back by the thousands of cyclists who have enjoyed June's generosity. The walls are literally covered with postcards. Each room has at least one couch (with a supply of blankets and pillows near at hand), and cyclists are welcome to spend the night. She welcomes all warmly, opens the Bike Museum and tells one make oneself at home. The cupboards are full of such items as soup, ramen noodles, peanut butter sandwiches, cold cuts, sodas, and of course cookies. It is so interesting perusing the stacks of reading material, admiring the extensive collection of objets de bike on display, and later chatting with June about people she'd met over the years. The above is an extract from a fellow TransAm rider. This is Shirley from Leicester who rode the TransAm with me in 2003 in one of the rooms where we stayed the night. Only down side was the showers, a three sided corrugated iron space fed by water straight of the mountain. It did not take long.
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MY BICYCLE
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D.A.T.C. The DATC stands for the “District Associations Tourist Competition�. The results for 2006 were issued in January this year. The Wessex DA came 31st with 279 points which were gained for us from the efforts of Mike Pain, Stephen Gould, Margaret Phillpots, Julia Baker-Beall and Jeff Horseman. These riders come from the full width of the DA catchment area, Stalbridge, Milton Abbas, Bournemouth, Redlynch and Wimborne. Any rider completing an eligible event gains points for their DA automatically and you do not have to register. There is also The Mille Miglia Challenge within the DATC. Full details of these competitions can be found on: www.ctc-competitions.org.uk
John & Sheila Ward wait for the riders at the finish of the New Forest 1000km last year
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BRITISH PEDAL CAR GRAND PRIX
Cliff Poulton
The British Pedal Car Grand Prix first took place in Ringwood in 1987, and has steadily grown in popularity since. The race now attracts thousands of spectators, and has even been filmed by both BBC Television and Satellite TV!
The British Pedal Car Grand Prix is held biennially as the finale to Ringwood Festival Week, and there are pedal car activities on both the Saturday and Sunday. The judging of the Concours D' Elegance is always held on the Saturday so that members of the public can come along and get a sneak preview of the competing cars.
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The race itself runs on the Sunday and is a two hour endurance race around the closed off streets of Ringwood town centre. The pedal cars assemble in the Furlong Centre from 10.00am, and are displayed there for the morning, prior to the parade laps from 1.30, with the race starting at 2.00pm. Spectators are able to walk around the whole course to watch the race from various different vantage points. The whole emphasis of the event is to have FUN! The pedal cars vary greatly in design with some very light and aerodynamic competitive cars, whilst others are built to amuse the crowds. Each car has a team of up to four pedallers who can change over as many times as they like, which makes pit lane viewing very interesting for the spectators! As well as local competitors, the race also attracts entrants from across the country. In 2004 teams travelled from Bristol, Rugby and Chippenham to take part. Some are members of the British Federation of Pedal Car Racing, and hope to come and give our local teams something to think about! The event also raises sponsorship money that is then donated to various charities nominated by Ringwood Festival Committee. The emphasis being to ensure that two or three local charities are beneficiaries of the money raised, and usually a cross section of charities are chosen so that the money benefits both the young and not so young alike. For 2007, there is a pedal car race in New Milton – the New Milton Pedal Car Grand Prix was first held in 2005, and aims to provide another local pedal car race to run on alternate years to the British Pedal Car Grand prix in Ringwood. More details about pedal car racing can be found by looking at the Pedal Car Page on the Royce UK Ltd web site - www.royce-uk.co.uk or by contacting Cliff Polton on 01425 620062.
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FROM THE PRESIDENT
Jimmy Walker
My Accident I've always been fortunate on my bike, however on Tuesday morning the 30th Jan the bike and I departed company. I was carrying the works laptop in my pannier which was placed on the left hand side of the pannier rack and hence the bag was a little bit heavier than usual. So, just as I was heading down to the bottom of our estate, for the left hand corner that I take every morning, the day took a most unexpected turn. Well not so much as a turn as a thumping great crash to the ground - I now suspect that there was diesel on the road. Would not have been so bad if I had just skittered along the road but when I went down, the front of my left knee took the full impact of the blow. Just like being winded I just could not move for the shocking pain in my leg. A kind man driving past stopped to check I was okay and was keen to phone for an ambulance as I lay there trying to work out how bad the injury was. All seemed to be in place so he was able to pull me to my feet and assured that I was relatively okay he went on his way – people really are kind. Trying to walk with the bike was too painful so it was time to practice for the "Olympics" 2012 one legged cycle race" as this was the most convenient way to get home. Gill was still in the kitchen as I came hopping through the door with this painful, guilty/embarrassed, feeling sorry for myself look on my face. Whilst I took to the sofa Gill went off to retrieve some ice from the freezer and wrapped it round my knee and then set about finding some pain killers. As the computer was needed for presentations that morning I had to contact work and have them make alternative arrangements - the computer was fine and came in handy to get some work done later in the day. The following morning the knee was still swollen and painful so I packed myself off to A&E. Impressive service indeed! Arrival 10:10h and out by 11.30h – and it looked busy. The x-ray (all digitalised and accessible from a range of computers on site) had shown that the knee and all associated bones were still in tact – I nearly jumped (well more like hopped really) for joy. The nurse and consultant prodded and probed and decided that
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as I could lift the leg (only by an inch) that all tendons were still attached. Although not ruling out internal surface damage they were satisfied that with painkillers, crutches and physiotherapy that I should make a recovery. Now nearly five weeks on I am back on the bike and the knee is recovering well, though no Sunday rides yet.
Connect2 For those of you who have kept an eye on the Sustrans "Connect2" campaign http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk you may have noticed that the Wessex DA have has had two projects selected for inclusion in the last round. This is great so make sure that you get on the web site to show your support for both the Weymouth to Portland Olympic connection http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/projects/search_results.php and connecting Salisbury, Alderbury and Wilton (C-SAW) route http://www.sustransconnect2.org.uk/projects/project_detail.php?id=89
DA Bits and Pieces It now seems that approximately 50 Wessex cyclists are going over to the Saint Lo Concentration on Sept 8th / 9th. Many thanks to Norman Payne for being the contact for the DA. I am sure it will be another cycling extravaganza and one not to miss. The DA committee have organised two intersection meets in the summer with the first being on June 24th at Gold Hill Shaftesbury and the other on Aug 12th at Semley. I look forward to meeting up with many of you over the year. Our best wishes go to Christopher Chaplin who is now back home - we all hope that you are comfortable and resting. The best of cycling to you all Jimmy
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Annemarie & Nigel’s Wedding
Keith Matthews
Annemarie Manley and Nigel Winter announced their wedding recently and we were all delighted for them both. There was a flurry of discussion around the DA and the Bournemouth Section as we decided how to mark the occasion. Annemarie has worked so hard for both DA and section that we felt something special was warranted. Members of the committee assembled one Saturday afternoon in February over tea and cakes to surprise the happy couple and present them with a framed original Patterson sketch.
The scene depicts Ebrington in Gloucestershire.
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Dates of next Meetings
Contributions and Photographs The committee meeting date is the deadline for Newsletter contributions. Editorial policy is to print all contributions, with minimal editing for the purposes of layout only. Contribute by email, disk, CD-ROM, typed or handwritten. Photographs are now welcome in any form. We can scan them and they will be returned safely.
Editor:
http://www.wessexctc.org CTC, Parklands, Railton Road, Guildford, Surrey GU2 9JX http://www.ctc.org.uk “CycleInk” is the Newsletter of the Bournemouth & District Section, Wessex District Association of the Cyclists’ Touring Club. Published four times a year for members. Views expressed are not necessarily those of the club.
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CYCLING IN THE ARDECHE & CEVENNES
JOURNAL OF ANOTHER GREAT ADVENTURE
Penny & Damian Buckley
May 2006
Day 1 Bournemouth Æ Oréans via Calais
Thursday, 4 May
Here we are again on the threshold of Great Adventure II. In fact, today is a bit of a ‘faux commencement’ since, to the casual observer it is starting as any other of our French holidays have done for the past 15-20 years. We load the bikes in the car, set off for a Channel port and spend the first night in a Campanile. On this occasion, we are in Orléans. Being here immediately brings back happy memories of our Loire trip. I would love to visit the Pont de l’Europe, the wonderfully graceful bridge built to mark the millennium. I miss the frisson of excitement of travelling by plane with boxed bikes but I am confident there will be frisson a-plenty once we are on our way. This trip will take us 100m higher than our highest point last year at Gerbier de Jonc and we can look forward to several serious LSAs*.
Day 2 OrléansÆ Céret
Friday, 5 May
It is great to wake in France. We chat to another Englishman at breakfast who is cycling the Pyrenees and then cycling round Spain. We marvel at his plans, which make ours seem rather modest. I am scheduled to drive the first stage but the engine makes that dispiritingly dead sound when I try to start the car. We just can’t believe that we shall have to call Green Flag for the third year running there is all a terrible sense of déjà vu about it. Fortunately, with the help of some jump leads we can get started. Even more fortunately the Peugeot dealer is not far and we can get a new battery. Thus, two hours later than scheduled, we set off. We pass through some rain but by Clermont Ferrand the sun is shining, temperature’s rising and my spirits. I am a fine weather cyclist, which probably marks me out as a softie; my spirits soar and plummet with the temperature.
For now it is great to back in France. Our route takes us over the new Millau viaduct, one of Norman Foster’s recent ‘oeuvres’ - it is quite stunning, magnificent, breathtaking and many other superlatives. I would like to stop, and feel sure there must be a viewing platform because stopping on the bridge is forbidden, but it escapes us. The French have missed a trick here; perhaps it is in the pipeline. Soon we are into the vineyards of Côtes de Roussillon. Beautifully tended, all the vines seem small, as though only two or three year old plants. I wonder if some twenty-first century phylloxera has wiped out the entire crop necessitating wholesale replanting. Then we realise that, this year, we are in France very early and this is just the normal amount of top growth for the time of year. The weather is warm and sunny and we are pleased to note all the signs of warmer climes: umbrella pines, cypresses, flatter, pantiled roofs, prickly pear cactus etc. We turn into the Glydon’s house 930 miles after leaving Bournemouth. Mas de Soula has views to die for - Monts des Albères and the Canigou. We enjoy a happy evening trying not to make it too bibulous - tomorrow we set off. * Lung-Searing Ascents
Day 3 Céret Æ Avignon
Saturday, 6 May 40 kms
A wonderful day, we are dressed for action. I take a picture of the Canigou, noting is still has snow on it! After photos with Fanny and Chris we are off for Perpignan station. This is the start; a 20 mile ride along a route nationale. It is uncomfortable with cars and lorries whizzing past. We are grateful for a broadish cycle track, a bit lumpy and bumpy but it does serve to separate us from the traffic. Damian gets a bee in his bonnet or rather a hover fly in his helmet and I wonder if my paramedic skills are going to be called for this early in the trip, happily they are not.
going only to the middle of the river. Perhaps the chapel of St Benezet in the middle is worth the detour but we don’t give it a chance to prove itself. The sky has also become overcast so the photo ops are much reduced.
Leaving the Glydon’s house
The Bridge at Avignon
As we struggle to get bikes down the steps at Avignon station, we are helped by kind people who are interested in what we are doing. They have been on a pilgrimage to St Gilles, which, they assure us, ranks alongside Rome, Jerusalem and Compostela. They are slightly amazed that we are cycling to Mont Aigoual; this in turn slightly worries us but we put it to the back of our mind. The journey to Avignon is three hours and I see my first flamingoes on the inland ponds and also some of the white horses of the Camargue. We find our hotel and hurry to get out into the city. We cannot leave without seeing The Bridge and there will be no time tomorrow. I find the bridge a bit of a disappointment. It is, in fact, only half a bridge -
Damian and Molière
Day 4 Avignon Æ St Martin d’Ardèche
Sunday, 7 May 80 kms
We wake to better than expected weather and spirits rise. Portion control is the name of the game at breakfast and we decide Hotel d’Angleterre fulfills all the basic requirements of a hotel and no more. We set off for St Martin d’Ardèche feeling great. Our routine is to buy lunch provisions early on and we arrive at Pujaut The village is en fête and M le Boulanger is setting out his bread stall. Amongst his wares is the longest baguette in the world, 2m at least. We chat and he invites us to see the oven in which he baked the loaf. Mindful that this will take time and we have 75 kms to conquer today, it seems churlish to refuse and we follow him. The oven is hugely deep but not tall and he tells us it is 80 years old. We chat, thank him and wish Pujaut a bonne fête. We are reminded again that episodes such as this are what make these expeditions such fun. Our route takes us through the vinyards of the Côtes du Rhone and Tavel Rosé - acre on acre of immaculately tended vines. It seems amazing that anything grows in the soil; it looks dull and lifeless and gives a new definition to stony. The only other crop we see is asparagus and the gang of workers doing the back-breaking work of picking it.
M le Boulanger and his baguette at Pujaut
By afternoon we’re feeling the effects of the climbs. The book describes today as ‘easy’ and in comparison to that which is to come: that may be so but we regret that we have not done more training. I even begin to wonder if we shall be abandoning this expedition. We arrive in St Martin d’Ardèche, a delightful town; apparently totally reliant on tourism with many places to hire canoes/kayaks. This reminds us of happy holidays canoeing down the Dordogne and the Dronne but there will be no time for canoeing this time. We change quickly and go for supper. Damian chooses fried Camembert cheese with a strawberry coulis on bed of rocket for a starter! I am amazed since he is nothing if not conventional in his food choices. When in France, however, his palate metamorphoses into something altogether more avant--garde. The whole meal is delicious.
Monday, 8 May 73.5 kms
recognise our bathroom, which is very 21st century, a far cry form the bowl and ewer they probably had to use.
We wake to hissing rain but cannot afford the luxury of waiting to see if it improves as we have a long ride today through the Gorges de l’Ardèche; it will be an LSA of that there is no doubt. Happily, by the time we are on the road it has stopped raining but is dull and overcast; photo ops will be very limited, a real shame since the scenery, we know, is dramatic. We travelled the road years ago on our way to our holiday in the South of France. When I wasn’t terrified by the sheer drops I was overcome by the size and staggering ruggedness of the scenery - this is Big Country. On the plus side, there is no wind against which to battle and not many tourists too busy looking at the view to notice toiling cyclists. We then realise it’s a public holiday and all selfrespecting Frenchmen are safely tucked up at home with plenty of coffee and Le Figaro.
We have a delicious supper - crême brulée to die for - in the converted cloister.
Day 5 St Martin d’Ardèche Æ Les Vans
Tomorrow will be the real test of stamina; a climb of 650m in 15 kms!
Pont d’Arc
The road is 36kms of unremitting climb and hairpin bends. We stop to take pictures at the first viewpoint but press on quickly uncertain how long the rain will hold off. Having left St Martin d’Ardèche at 9.40 am we arrive at Pont d’Arc, the MOST amazing natural bridge over the river, at about midday. However, having got to this point we then have to come down and I note the descent is 12%: this is seriously steep and would defeat us utterly if we were coming up, as it is it merely terrifies me going down. We’re into Vallon Pont d’Arc for lunch and sit on the central square steps for our picnic lunch. This immediately marks us out as foreigners, no Frenchman, even for a picnic, would eat so informally. It starts to rain heavily again, so we run for the nearest café. The coffee is excellent but we dare not get too comfortable; we have 30 kms to Les Vans. There is nothing for it but to don many layers of waterproof clothing in a sort of reverse strip tease finishing up with our ‘moonboots’: we get the distinct feeling we are providing the cabaret for M le Patron and his guests. The route now becomes easier and at Les Vans we fall into Hotel Le Carmel, tired and bedraggled. The owner is English and recognises that the tired cyclist needs a bath more than a shower and upgrades us. As the name implies it was formerly a Carmelite convent and I try to imagine the nuns, who only left in 1972, living here. They would not
Hotel le Carmel, Les Vans
Day 6 Les Vans ÆVillefort
Tues, 9 Mayr 27 kms
the hall, we gather mine host is a chef of some note but he is rather brusque and we decide to skip his gourmet extravaganza.
Hotel le Carmel has achieved full marks in all respects. We enjoy a wonderful buffet breakfast with the best marmalade we’ve ever tasted in France; light years from the runny orange jam which the French try to pass off as marmalade.
Highest point of the day
Happily, the weather has improved enormously and we are away with a clear blue sky, bound for Villefort. Before we have even left the town limit sign we are climbing and there follows 3 hours of unremitting, lungsearing, bottom gear, ankle-working ascent. Most of the time we are only just making 6kph maximum with many stops to recover; and this is fun???? We eventually achieve Col du Mas de l’Ayre at 846m but seriously question what we are doing. It is becoming an endurance test, although the views of the Cévennes are wonderful and we do have plenty of time to enjoy them from the saddle. However, we know that this is only half the maximum height to be achieved this trip - can we possibly make it. The payback of the climb is the quick and easy descent into Villefort but we are suddenly buffeted by a strong wind. Could this be the Tramontaine mentioned on the forecast? We arrive in Villefort and feel it is time to seriously reappraise the future of the expedition: given the difficulty of this morning how can we manage Mt Lozère at 1400m or Mont Aigoual at nearly 1600m. On the personal achievement scale we score well, but is it fun? Briefly, we seriously consider catching the train from Villefort to Nîmes but this seems to be a ‘wimp out’ too far. After much studying of the contours and comparison of elevations, we decide to give Lozère and Aigoual the heave-ho, and head due south for Alès tomorrow. We try to analyse the situation and decide that the Loire trip had a clearly defined aim: There was a certain romance to following a river, source to sea, with the major challenge at the beginning after which it was, literally, downhill all the way. I feel very despondent, I hate to start something and not see it through, but acknowledge that this is the sensible approach. The new plan is a route closely following the railway, which looks reasonably flat, and we book the room in Alès. Hotel Balme, Villefort is a typical example of a French Logis whose glory days are but a distant memory. From the clutch of accolades in
Huge moth which had been assaulted by a sparrow
Day 7 Villefort Æ Nîmes
Wednesday, 10 May 108 kms
The weather is not promising but we are soon en route for Alès; mostly gentle downhill, a great way to travel. The Cévennes scenery is stunning. While taking a photo of the granite ‘chain’ I notice what looks like an extraordinarily long creature crawling sinuously along the road. It seems to be made of many sections and looks like a very long caterpillar. It is, in fact, 44 caterpillars travelling nose to tail. I have never seen such a display of follow my leader and blind faith in the front ‘man’. I fear that they will never get to the other side and it will be a case of ‘caterpillarcide’ on the grand scale*.
The lunch stop is Château de Portes the front of which looks like the prow of a ship. The wild spring flowers in the meadows are beautiful, with a variety and profusion we don’t see in England.
Château de Portes
A clever demonstration of the stonemason’s skill
We make good progress and are in Alès by mid afternoon. It seems a waste to spend a night here so decide to make a run for Nîmes some 40 kms further south and where we had, anyway, planned to spend a rest day. We book the hotel in Nîmes and cancel Alès.
*We later learned that these processional caterpillars contain a highly toxic poison in their fur. There was never any danger of us touching them
We must fly like the wind and will still not arrive before 7.00 pm at the earliest. We are now cycling through the vineyards of the Pays d’Oc appellation - this is my sort of cycling! We fall into the Hotel Empire at 7.15 pm, absolutely knackered. It’s been a hard day, but fun, and the trip begins to feel more like a holiday and less like SAS selection trials. We feel we have recaptured some of the spirit of the Loire trip.
Day 8 Rest day at Nîmes
Thursday, 11 May
We enjoy the luxury of not having to pack panniers and get on the road immediately after breakfast. It is an absolutely brilliant day, azure blue sky to set the photos off perfectly. Nîmes is an old roman city and the site of the best-preserved coliseum in the world. We spend several hours here; I feel a bit like a Christmas tree with glasses, camera and the audio guide strung round my neck. The audio guide was an inspiration on somebody’s part It makes the visit interesting and so much easier than listening to French. We love our sightseeing day and thoroughly enjoy the respite from the saddle. By supper I feel I could do justice to a bucket of moules. Surprisingly, because Nîmes is not that far from the sea, they are rather elusive and when we do find a restaurant they are a big disappointment. The arena
Day 9 Nîmes Æ St Martin de Londres
Friday, 12 May 69 kms
We are starting the second leg of our trip today - Nîmes to Perpignan. As always, I find getting out of a big city somewhat daunting, but it goes pretty well and we leave the bustle behind. We do not have a detailed IGN map for today’s ride and are working from an enlarged page of the Michelin atlas - not perfect but good enough. First stop is at Caveirac for standard lunch rations, baguette, 2 tomatoes, some ham, some cheese. pretty much the same most days. It is not a big village: something like Burton but has a most wonderful boucherie/charcuterie/delicatessen and I buy some mini peppers stuffed with goat’s cheese and some with anchovies - they are scrummy! The weather has turned cool again and I have plenty of time to reflect on our journey. Each day I hope to recapture the spirit of our Loire trip and mostly I don’t feel we do. The book called this trip ‘Remote Cévennes’ and they’re right. The countryside is rugged and very sparsely populated, whereas we derive much of the pleasure cycling through villages, stopping for coffee and talking to the people. While most of the land is vineyards; where not, it is barren limestone causse. The weather is changeable and the crew, all one of it, is feeling mutinous. We arrive at St Martin de Londres and find our chambre d’hôte - “De ci de la”, literally from here and there. When I found it on the web, I felt sure it was going to be slightly ‘off the wall’. I was right, our room is a fully coordinated, shocking pink and silver confection. The whole ensemble is best described as ‘eclectic’, even the musical box plays the Pink Panther.
24,000 seating capacity -and one of the few remaining locations for bullfights in France
B&B at De ci … de la
We take a walk round the town and come upon a sculptor at work. It turns out this is just his hobby but he is very enthusiastic, skilled and happy to show and tell us about various commissions he has undertaken. He is interesting and tells us about the cross of the Languedoc. It seems rude to interrupt him but we are hungry and eventually get away to a pizza. The circus is also in town. Big Top would be overstating the case but the animals look reasonably happy and well cared for. The French do not seem to be so sensitive about circuses, one can often see posters in towns large and small.
Day 10 St Martin de Londres Æ Clermont l’Hérault
Saturday, 13 May 48kms
De ci … de la fully justifies all my expectations, nothing is normal/ordinary. Monsieur has travelled widely in Morocco and southern Africa bringing back trophies and objets d’art to decorate this quiet little corner of France. He also has a weird and wonderful collection of ephemera so that the whole place had a slightly Daliesque feel about it but it makes an interesting change from the sometimes rather stodgy Logis de France hotels. After an indifferent breakfast, we set off up another mountain on another LSA. The St Martin-de-Londres Saturday cyclists are out in force and race past us with much joshing about our heavy loads. Again the weather is changeable, which means sometimes raining, sometimes dull. This expedition can be summed up as toiling up, up, up, followed by flying down, down, down; bowling merrily along seems to be in short supply; the crew is revolting again. We arrive at Clermont l’Hérault and check into the Hotel Terminus, it is, as its name implies, as exciting as any Station Hotel in England. While having a cup of tea we look at the weather for the next few days. Tomorrow will be sunny followed by two days of ‘orages’ (storms). This is very bad news and with very, very heavy hearts we decide to abandon the trip. Were we to continue, we would be in the hilly, remote Haut Languedoc region - more climbs, more descents, this is not fun and we feel it would be foolhardy to continue. We must contact Fanny and Chris and sort out a train back to Perpignan. Deep despondency has settled on the captain and crew.
A rare stretch of flat cycling near Buzignargues Barrage below Causse de la Selle
Day 11 Clermont l’HéraultÆ Murat sur Vèbre
Sunday, 14 May 54kms
Hotel le Terminus has earned ‘Worst Hotel of the Holiday Award’ The room is basic, breakfast mean and staff indifferent. However, while eating breakfast we catch sight of the forecast in the paper, our part of France is covered in sunshine symbols! We look at each other and decide to press on - feeling better already. We have to cancel emergency texts to Fanny and Chris and set out on what will be a long day, starting and finishing with a Lung Searer. At the end of the day we shall be at 1000m. We are still amongst vineyards but the soil is red, red like Somerset. Quite suddenly it changes dramatically to a much more hostile landscape with no crops - I wonder if this is how Mexico might look. As we pass through gullies I half expect some Red Indians (is this PC?) to ambush us. It’s OK on this lovely day but I would not like to have a puncture and diminishing water supplies. We reach St Gervais-surMare, a village on the pilgrimage route to Compostela, at tea time. There are several pilgrims, couples and organised groups, easily spotted by their sticks and cockleshells. From St Gervais we have 21kms of which 7km will be ridiculously steep. It is also a wonderfully hot day but not good news for cycling. Damian decides that we must find someone to take us and the bikes up this climb. I think this is the ultimate ‘mission impossible’; it is, after all, 4.00pm on a Sunday afternoon in this sleepy little village. I start to prepare myself mentally and physically for this assault knowing it will probably take us three hours perhaps longer. I am, quite frankly, gobsmacked when Damian returns and says he has found someone who, for Є20, will take us and the bikes to Croix de Mounis (809m), the highest point, from which we still have 7kms into Murat ;we are never so grateful for this help. The countryside has flattened out into alpine meadow landscape. Murat is tiny but Hotel Durand is great - comfortable room, spacious shower and even a hot air blower so we can wash out our kit. We have the most superb confit de canard for supper and are amazed that such a tiny village and modest hotel can provide such an excellent meal at such a reasonable price. We discuss the thorny problem of whether to own up to the 21kms of ‘assisted’ cycling in the journal however we feel we have recaptured the spirit of the Loire trip.
Day 12 Murat sur Vèbre Æ Mazamet
Monday, 15 May 68kms
We vote Hotel Durand ‘Best of Holiday’ We have a long ride today but it should not be too arduous being mostly downhill. Murat is also on the pilgrimage way and we leave the hotel with a Dutch couple+dog. They will not go all the way to Compostela in one ‘hit’ but will walk selected sections. Sadly, the weather has changed, gone is the lovely hot sun of yesterday and we’re back into 100% wet weather gear and wondering, once again, why we are doing this when we could be at home. Despite the weather the countryside is astonishingly, breathtakingly magnificent. We’re still in the Haute Longuedoc. I never realised there was so much untamed nature in France; it is a world away from the gentle, well cultivated flood plains of the Loire. The weather improves and we’re bowling along - this is the cycling for me! We pass another couple of touring cyclists who, we learn are en route for Compostela. He seems to be heavily burdened with front and back panniers, rucksack and sleeping mats while she has got away with a relatively light load though we suspect her bike, which rather incongruously has a wire basket on the front, is rather heavy. They too have a little cockleshell fixed to a pannier. We wish them ‘bonne continuation’ and feel they need it. We have a 24km downhill roll into Mazamet, arriving at the Tourist Information office whilst a journalist is taking some publicity photos and she asks if we would mind having our photo taken. We’re more than happy to oblige and are reminded of our brief moment of fame when we were interviewed for Baltimore lunch time television! Lunch stop at Lac Raviège
Day 13 MazametÆ Carcassonne
Tuesday, 16 May 51kms
The Boulevard proves to be an adequate hotel but our breakfast routine is thrown into complete disarray. Normal procedure is to snaffle 3 individual pats of butter for our lunch. Hotel Boulevard serves its butter in a dish - very genteel but means we have a butterless lunch.
claws at the end. When I dare to look anywhere else but the road ahead, the views are of more rugged cliffs and deep gorges. The book tells us the approach to Carcassonne is of ‘crusade proportions’ which sounds a bit scary. We find the station and ask a couple who kindly lead us in their car to our hotel. Hotel l’Octroi is only 300m from the walled cité of Carcassonne and we have a view of some of the 52 towers from our bedroom window..
Tuesday is market day in Mazamet. I love the bustle of French markets and in 11 days on the road this is the first market we have come upon. I love the catholic (small ‘c’) variety of stalls where the vegetable stall rubs shoulders with the bed stall, the chair caner, the butcher, ironmonger, clothes stalls, honey , wine, live rabbits, chickens, etc., etc. The fruit and vegetables are so wonderfully colourful and bursting with goodness, I feel I could easily become a ‘veggie’ in France. However, even I have to admit that one French market is much the same as another and we have a long journey starting with 10kms of XLSA.
Laundry arrangements in Hautpoul. This lavanderie had recently been used NB the soap bubbles!
Market day in Mazamet
View from our bedroom We break the Lung Searer to visit the tiny medieval village of Hautpoul which literally clings to the hillside. I marvel at the talent the French have for creating a pretty, shady little terrace in the tiniest of spaces - a vine trained over a frame, some geraniums, heaven! We cannot delay too long, we are not even half way up this hill and we can only manage 6 kph, it’s extremely hot and lorries are tanking past us. The pay back will be 40 kms downhill into Carcassonne but it’s a steep descent so brakes on the whole way, our hands are locked like
Day 14 Wednesday, 17 Mayr Damian’s Birthday and Rest Day at Carcassone
Day 15 Carcassonne ÆSougraigne
We allow ourselves the luxury of an extra half hour in bed, it is, after all Damian’s birthday and last year we spent my birthday in Tours. We’re into the city early to walk the 3km perimeter. It’s a World Heritage site but in fact the ramparts and towers were rebuilt in the 19th century. I find it somewhat sterile and wonder if this is a heresy! It has all the worst features of a popular tourist destination - shops selling expensive souvenirs and cafés selling expensive coffee and icecream. I imagine in July and August the place would be heaving.
We wake up to indifferent weather. How can it be beautiful one day and dull the next in this part of France? Hotel l’Octroi is excellent and Madame most helpful. We’re away by 8.45 am, a personal best but essential as today will be long and tiring. We’re soon climbing hard but also have some long, flat(ish) stretches. I find myself bowling effortlessly at 16.8 mph, a real novelty since this has been a trip of two speeds, very slow and very fast. I even find time to think and decide that if we ever cycle in France again, we shall stick to river courses.
However, the heat is building up and the clear blue sky makes for great photos but a rest day also means laundrette day and while waiting we plan tomorrow’s ride. It will be a long one with the regular feature of the LSA. We think it prudent to sort out a bed which proves a wise move as our destination town, Rennes les Bains, is hosting the Tour de l’Aude Féminin, a cycle race of the Aude département for women obvious really. All beds in Rennes are taken and we eventually have to settle on a Logis somewhat off route but beggars and choosers come to mind. It will be 70kms up and down (of course!) and we must be up at 6.45 am to allow a 3 hour lunch break if the heat of the day is similar to today. Having made the admin arrangements we go out for supper.
By mid morning the weather is looking threatening again and we arrive at our lunch stop, the village lavanderie, just in time. A plaque on the wall proudly proclaims it was refurbished in 1970 and I find it amazing that such facilities were still necessary. After lunch the predicted ‘orages’ arrive and there is nothing for it but to don full wet weather gear; we still have 30 kms to do. To pass the kilometres we play games but wonder what on earth I am doing and feel so sad that the spirit of the Loire trip is slipping away again. Perhaps it was a one off. We remove and put on waterproofs several times to combat the swirling misty rain; it feels just like Wales.
Despite being somewhat touristy the cobbled streets are delightful and we find a great restaurant and have warm goats cheese salad and confit de canard which has become my favourite. Mme la Patronne makes a big fuss of Damian and he receive birthday texts and calls during supper which still seems a miracle of modern communication.
Thursday, 18 May 69kms
Exhausted!!
Canal du Midi runs through Carcassonne
One Taurean to another. Red marble bull at Missègre
The guests at Logis Ecluse au Soleil (The Suntrap) are all Englishspeaking and we enjoy a happy, interesting evening with a couple who live in Chevy Chase. They are mildly surprised when we say we know it until we explain the Baltimore Connection. There is a couple from California and a young man reconnoitring a walk for a holiday company. While we enjoy practicing our french with french people, it is a pleasure not to have to cudgel our brains at the end of the long day.
Day 16 Sougraigne Æ Cucugnan
Friday, 19 May 45 kms
We wake to a slightly better day and fortify ourselves with a marvellous, abundant breakfast. Ecluse au Soleil has earned one of the coveted Buckley Best awards!
We are nearing the end of Great Adventure II. Tomorrow we shall cycle 40 kms leaving 60 kms to get back to Fanny and Chris. Once again the weather for tomorrow is promising - this is becoming a familiar chant! The hot baths at Rennes les Bains
Departure from Sougraine To rejoin our route, we must first return to Rennes les Bains. Rennes’ glory days as a spa town are long gone but today it is en fête and dressed overall for the Tour de l’Aude. The race will not start till early afternoon but roads are closed and there is a general buzz around the town. We will share the route for some distance but there any similarity will end. While toiling up yet another hill I realise that May is the best time for seeing the wild flowers and bicycle travel a great way to really notice them. Apart from all the usual varieties we find in England, we have seen several different species of orchids.
An intimate bath à deux
We stop in Bugarach for coffee, a remote village of some 200 souls yet able to support a café and restaurant. By lunch time the villages along the Tour route are faintly stirring and we decide to watch the cyclists as they race through ??. Cycling is almost a religion in France There is much fanfare with many gendarme motorcycle outriders to clear the roads followed by the support vehicles and sundry hangers on, first aid, press etc. Somewhere in the middle are the cyclists, on this occasion
about a 100 like a swarm of bees in their fluorescent lycra, they swirl round the corner in front of us and are gone. Tour de l’Aude Féminin through Soulage
Day 17 Cucugnan Æ Céret
Saturday, 20 May 63kms
Once again we allow ourselves a half later start. Breakfast is meagre, portion control is king so that wringing extra butter, jam and hot water from M le Patron is like drawing teeth. In other respect Hotel la Table du Curé de Cucugnan is good. Out of the village, straight into an XLSA and were soon passing the road to Quéribus. We think about offloading the panniers, locking them together and hiding them in a bush but the detour would take at least two hours out of the day and we have agreed to be with Fanny and Chris between 4.00 and 5.00 pm. We press on: it will have to be the car option, purists can call this cheating but I feel I have earned my spurs this trip. Once past Grau du Maury we’re flying down again as fast as we dare. The road is all bends when to travel at too much speed would just pitch us over the edge. Back again into the Maury vineyards, it seems novel to be using our legs to propel us at 33 kph when most of the time gravity has been taking us at that speed.
Our last night on the road is at Cucugnan. This is Corbières country and it is great to be riding through the vineyards on a sunny afternoon. In nearly 500 miles of cycling, we have been through many of the great appellations sadly, dégustations are a no-no for me on a bicycle. It is also Cathar country and we pass two massive châteaux, Péyrepertuse and Quéribus. The sun is out again and we briefly consider cycling up to Quéribus which I would very much like to see. The châteaux in this region are quite different from those of the Loire, being 13th - 14th century and built for defending territory rather than pleasure pursuits. However, the hill will be an XXLSA and I just don’t think my legs will work. We may visit as we pass tomorrow or return on Monday in the car on our way home. I am conscious this would be cheating but I have ridden up enough steep hills to last me a life time. Perhaps our next trip should be ‘Windmills of Holland’
We’re now quite close to the spanish border and the Catalan influence is noticeable. We stop for coffee in Estagel and I feel there is less attention to detail. We make our lunch stop at Col de la Bataille and are relieved to escape the boiling heat and blinding sun. As we set off I feel we are close to journey’s end. At Thuir we shall have only 21 kms - an hour and a half at most. There is however, the final Lung Searer above Fanny and Chris’ house and this becomes the longest Lung Searer of them all - my knees are SHREDDED! However all bad things come to an end and we’re flying down at high speed in the drive at Mas Soula, Chris is there to meet us and record the moment adding that we’re 18 minutes late after 493 miles! They have the champagne on ice and we spend a happy evening and the promise of a LONG lie in.
Days 18, 19 and 20
21,22,23 May
We have a day to draw breath and have lunch together at Collioure, a Catalan fishing village much favoured by the Impressionist painters. We leave the Glydons on Monday and head back to Château de Quéribus. This is the really novel experience, being on four wheels where only a two days ago we were on two, quite honestly, we are astonished that we cycled down this road, it makes us feel rather wobbly just thinking about it; we’re also pleased we did not hide the panniers and visit on bikes. Quéribus is perched precariously but not so precariously as it has been buffeted by the four winds for 800 years. We spend a couple of hours before heading back for the motorway, Orléans, Calais and home. This trip was so different from last year and not quite the same success but despite all we feel it’s a great achievement. Weather played a huge part but there was too much hard slog. Looking back, we saw some wonderful, interesting places and met kind people and already I am forgetting the worst parts. However, I may also just have got long distance cycling in France out of my system.
Some of the beautiful flowers we saw