magpies and elephants

Wednesday 16.05.2012   Saumur – Villandry  63kms

Still very nippy this morning and, having shared our breakfast with the magpies, I made a smart move to the heated toilet block to dress for our ride. I have to say Alan wasn’t far behind, but it was impossible to leave the pitch for fear of an air attack!

Now here's an idea for the next trip

I had not expected to start eating my elephant quite so soon on this trip, but today I began to nibble. (For those of you new to the blog, my mantra when things require a humungus effort on my part, is to recall how to eat an elephant – one mouthful at a time!) Now this usually happens when I am confronted by a huge hill but on this occasion, I felt as though I was riding through treacle. And it is only the first week! Shortly after lunch my eyes strayed to my back tyre and it was with a mixture of relief and frustration that I realised there was a lot less air in it than there should have been. A puncture? Thankfully not; a bit of pumping by Mr. Technician and all was well. What a relief to know that it was not my increasing age or a decreasing of general fitness, I was, in effect, riding through treacle.

We did pass through a memorable town although for what it was memorable I cannot recall except that its name was Candes, it was old and we shall return there in the future, probably by car.

Thankfully my tyre incident had been sorted before our route took us on a devious route above the river in order that we might be impressed by the vineyards. Not entirely successful, as we have already seen quite a lot of vineyards and it was cold and windy. Forewarned now, Mr. Navigator was not fooled a second time and we avoided the next foray into wine growing country and stuck with the river, surprisingly the Vienne for a short time.

We had already decided on an inside evening in view of the pending rain (which never really materialised) and a night in a proper bed after a proper meal. This one was a Logis run by Mr. Everlastingly Cheerful. After the proper and delicious meal, washed down with an equally delicious bottle of wine, we were both too tired or too pi…………..d or both, to finish and post the blog. Always tomorrow!