Sore, wet and windy

30. 05. 15   Cousept to Bouin   65 kms  (Couldn’t charge the garmin therefore no idea of ascent but quite a lot of upping and downing)

Did I mention that our shed had an upstairs which must have been less than two metres high. It was nonetheless occupied by two elves we never saw – just heard!  All shab and no absolutely no chic.

I had woken a few times in the night and was surprised to note that Al was sleeping soundly – a good sign, I thought. Although still unable to get up from the bed unaided, Al made it to the loo unaided – another good sign I thought. A peremptory shout from our hostess informed us that our breakfast was ready. After a thorough inspection of the entire site, we located a table under a makeshift awning with breakfast laid out. A reasonable repas was made into a good repas  with the addition of eggy bread! And the whole experience cost a princely 42 Euros.

Getting going took a while with Al insisting on doing as much as possible, despite the discomfort. Sensibly, we took the main road for a while as bouncy was not a clever option for bruised ribs and probably a few other injuries as well. The entire route now felt very different; we could actually see  the sea ( although this didn’t last long); we passed the commencement of our route of three years ago when we got two thirds of the way to the Black Sea before I fell off; we rode along the coast for all of about five kilometres before we were directed inland and thenceforward retained only glimpses of the ocean. Pornic provided us with a pretty bench for lunch (the bench was not very pretty but the view was).

A cold wind was blowing up and likely to rush up the old nostrils and having been subjected to a not terribly comfortable stopover last night, we reserved a room in an hotel in Bouin some thirty kilometres further on. Thirty kilometres of mostly old salt marsh, very flat and accompanied by old nostril wind.

Our hotel was a pleasure to behold and the beers which appeared were heartily welcome. Our room opened onto the garden in which was situated the swimming pool of decent size. Our kindly host retracted the pool cover and I went for a swim. I might add that it is a covered pool! The meal that we consumed a little later in the restaurant was delicious and in stark contrast to our bread and cheese of the preceding evening. We did feel that we deserved this not inconsiderable luxury.

I am writing this now on Sunday. The nostril wind is still blowing a hooley accompanied by rain and Al is still in a lot of pain but not ready to give up.  As a compromise, we will stay in this comfortable hotel  room for a further 24 hours (but without the luxury of a second restaurant meal) and reassess the situation tomorrow.  Sorry Bren, you might miss out on St. Jean yet again!