Sat 19 & Sun 20: Cherbourg to near Combourg.

July 19, 2014

I had hoped to check-in to a hostel in Cherbourg when the ferry arrives at eight on Friday evening, but I get talking to two other cyclists riding from the port and riding along with them in conversation, before I know it I'm well out of Cherbourg. Anyway the two cyclists turn off, and I riding on alone decide to keep riding for an hour or so, then find somewhere to wild camp. Then it struck me, I've no water. I'm on a cycle lane alongside a busy road in the sand dune landscape to the east of the city and there aren't any supermarkets about where I can get water. The cycle lane ends by a big roundabout with signs for Caen and Rennes but no sign of an alternative road to cycle south along the eastern side of the Cherbourg peninsular.

The waterfront in the centre of Cherbourg, when I rode back through town Saturday morning.

On Saturday morning after an attempt at finding a minor road southeast where I end up on the beach, I turn and head back into Cherbourg, deciding the best way south is likely down the peninsula's west coast. The same road I cycled up in April. Cycling through the city on the street following the quayside, I see the sign Auberge de Jeunesse, a hostel; and wish, I had of made it into the city and stayed there last night, as the campsite I found shortly after stopping at the roundabout, charged me twelve euros for just a hedge enclosed pitch and few facilities, certainly no wifi, which I need as I've many days pictures to upload to this site. The hostel would have only cost six or seven euros more and I would be up-to-date and start the day with breakfast included in the price.

Out of the city there's a long hill. I remember coming down it in April. The weather remains grey all morning; cool with a sea breeze and almost getting like rain by noon. And it is almost boring returning the road I came the other way so recently; stopping at a Lidl on the way and lunching. Then at a roundabout after Barneville I without realising it take a different road. It stroke me as different from the road I remember. A lot more scenic as it passes through a stretch of woodland and nearer the coast. By mid-afternoon the cloud clears leaving a bright sunny end to a day when I manager my target of a hundred and ten kilometres despite a late start.

I turned off the main route to this village as I would be needing a lighter to light my stove later.

An example of the road around 7 PM Saturday: Saltwater channel and marsh on the right.

Which way? Turning right I remain on the minor coastal route.

From my tent on a track cross the dune landscape near Coudeville.

It is raining lightly Sunday morning when I first stir, but has cleared up by the time I've packed and take the tent down. The road ahead soon reaches Granville, which on first appearance is a long descending street with the same street continuing up a steep incline ahead. I stop at one of the many boulangeries to the side and buy bread for the day, and a little further stop at another with a café where I treat myself to coffee and a pan au raisin, a kind of second breakfast.

Onwards and over the crest of the hill, I see that the long street behind me, dipping down then rising up, is only the beginning of the city proper, as the way descends steeply down a narrow street into and through an old town by a waterfront.

Further on the way passes through another resort, Jousville; where I'm glad to be passing a Super U before shutting for the afternoon. The aisles are packed with shoppers, mainly Summer holidaymakers, and I take a while getting all I'll need until tomorrow.

Around twelve thirty I see the familiar grey crowning outline of Mont Saint Michel, not too far away to the right on the seaward side, but it would take all afternoon cycling there because of a narrow inlet ahead that I would have to go round.

I was hoping to avoid the large town of Avranches, but there seems no other way round as the quiet D road finishes by a big roundabout on the outside of town with the only way ahead, apart from following the Centre Ville sign, is the autoroute with blue-car and no-cycling signs.

I cross the autoroute on a footbridge, thinking that there's a service road running parallel on the other side. Coming down the ramp, I meet four French touring cyclists, two couples coming up from where I think the start is. They confirm there's no way through ahead. They too are looking for the way round to Mont Saint Michel without going through the centre of town. Returning back over the bridge, one of them enters the railway station a little way along and asks, and returns out with instructions to crossover the level-crossing at the end of the station, then first left, behind the station. Sure enough this leads to a car width asphalt path away from town and the autoroute, with hills on the left and coastal levels to the right. A pleasant little road with only access to cyclists and people with houses along the way.

Aerodrome sock with Mont Saint Michel in the distance.

I stop for a late lunch at a village picnic table, where a hen come along to pick any crumb of bread that would drop to the ground. Supposedly she loves seeing people stop to eat, as she knows there'll be some for her too.

By late afternoon, with Mont Saint Michel behind me and having called at the old working windmill up on the hilltop on the road south, a young couple cycling touring pass me briskly. They are lightly packed, both with only rear-panniers. I try to keep up with them. But it is no use. My legs have that burning feeling. Without knowing it the day has taken a lot out of me. There has been a brisk sea breeze, which Is riding into the later part of the day. Whatever I feel un-really tired. And the road is again hilly as I go inland. Halfway up a longish hill, I stop by a track in along a wheat field and discover it leads into an old orchard, a point between two fields and underneath the old crab-apple trees there's adequate place for a tent.

Hey! My new friend. And you'll be expecting to be fed.

Today's ride: 202 km (125 miles)
Total: 1,767 km (1,097 miles)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	0
Comment on this entry	Comment	0