Day 8 - Mimizan Plage to Biganos

Distance cycled today 47 miles
Distance cycled since Modbury 315 miles

Last night was one of the best stops we've had. The hotel was small, friendly and comfortable. We had a good meal in a local restaurant - rillette de confit de canard, with a tender steak and a cheese sauce for Rob, and smoked herrings and sliced potatoes in an olive oil dressing followed by a similar steak for me. We usually have a beer as an aperitif, half a litre of house wine, desserts and coffees and we are tending to pay around 60 euros including a 10 per cent tip between us. Those who tour on a budget may wince at this but we are always looking at quality without breaking the bank and try to choose the 3 course "menus" to limit expenditure. On a typical day, we have breakfast, a pastry during the morning, a light lunch (more about that later) but concentrate on a good meal in the evening.

This morning, we wound up the shutters on the windows to be greeted by sunshine and unbroken clear blue sky - perfect.
The breakfast was buffet type with cereals, breads, croissants, other pastries, fruit juices, ham and cheese as well as coffee and tea. At 7.5 euros it was good value.

We got away late today at 9.45 owing to my over-sleeping - yahoo! The Nytol tablets never fail to work and I felt totally refreshed after 9 hours of sleep.
The temperature was a welcome 19C as we loaded our bikes, set off and quickly found the Velodysee again. Once more it tracked through pine forests and was entirely traffic-free. It skirted a huge military firing range, fenced off to everyone, and we'd been warned that if we strayed into the site we'd be led away in handcuffs. No problem really as we've only got bicycle cable cutters and they wouldn't have been enough for that fence!

We've encountered plenty of wild-life whilst cycling as you can sneak up on the little blighters without them hearing you! We've seen a few red squirrels in the last few days but today, Rob pointed out a grebe, heard a cuckoo and saw something in a lake which he thought may have been an otter.

After a while, we left the forested area, the signposting became a bit vague and the sun disappeared. The cycle track seemed to go off our intended route so we took to the roads again. We had been cycling for a mile or two, until one kindly gentleman driving towards us flashed his lights, leant on his horn and started waving. I waved back thinking what a friendly chap he was but then realised that he was pointing to the cycle track on the opposite side of the road which was hidden by shrubbery. Neither Rob nor I had noticed this!

We followed the track for a few miles and stopped to chat to a couple of British guys on Boardman, flat-barred bikes, who'd cycled from St Malo in the last week en-route to Santander. They'd covered a good distance already, had pre-booked all their overnight stops but they just didn't look relaxed, certainly not as relaxed as us. They felt that they'd set their daily target of 80 miles too high and had since revised it downwards to 50. They were very apprehensive about the Spanish mountains (I hope they weren't as bad as you feared, guys). They were also not happy with their sat-nav so I gave them our Spanish photocopy maps. I'd previously considered sat-nav but you simply don't get an overview as you do with maps.

We reached Parentis en Born around 11.30 and stocked up on coffee eclairs (to eat then) and raspberry jam doughnuts for later. French eclairs are delicious!
Then, the scenery changed. The cycle path had taken a loop before we stopped and heaven knows where it went ........but it wasn't going our way! So we headed up the main road to Sanguinet and on to Biganos, stopping just once for a doughnut break. The roads were very long and very straight and the open countryside offered little cover against what is becoming an irritating headwind. (We chose Santander to Roscoff to be HELPED by the prevailing winds - would whoever's in charge please note!) Rob and I draughted along these roads, with more benefit felt by me than Rob, it seems. Rob must be more streamlined than me!

We met another long-distance cyclist, a young Dutch guy on a Santos tourer. He had his laundry drying on his rear rack. He and a friend, who was a mile or two ahead, had cycled from Amsterdam to Paris and were going on to Gibraltar, taking a break away from the bikes in Morocco, and then returning by air from Madrid. Respect!!!

We reached Biganos, where I'd booked a room at the Logis Hotel du Delta tonight (80 euros B and B for both of us......and the small taxes again!) at about 3. Just before reaching the hotel, I diverted into a nearby McDonalds to fuel up. It's becoming apparent that Rob and I have different metabolisms and needs - Rob doesn't feel the cold as much as I do and he can cycle all day long after breakfast with just a couple of cakes inside him but I need something more substantial. Rob drinks more water during the day and he can happily drink more alcohol in the evening without becoming dehydrated so we are now accommodating these differences.

The helpful manager in McD's pointed out an InterSport shop where I was able to buy a replacement bottle cage which was kindly fitted by the shop staff. When removing the old cage (which you may recall I'd fixed with a cable tie) I found that I'd clamped the tie around my rear brake cable...............and I'd had to adjust my rear brake coincidentally after I'd cable-tied the broken cage. Dohhhh! It's not the first time I've done that. My dear Dad often says "Son, you're intelligent but you've got no common-sense!"

We finally got to our hotel at 3.45 and it looks just the ticket again although we'd not been told that we needed to book an evening meal, so we'll be going walkies later.

Photos:
Rob back on the Velodysee (EV1) cycle trail.
Not much doubt that we can't take a short cut through the military area!