July 9, 2016 to July 10, 2016
Rest day at Verdun sur Doubs and cycling day to Orchamps
We escape the mozzies, see dragon boat races at St Jean de Losne and witness France’s World Cup demise.
Rest day at Verdun sur Doubs and cycling day to Orchamps
We escape the mozzies, see dragon boat races at St Jean de Losne and witness France’s World Cup demise.
At ‘Camping La Plage’, the murmuring in the trees which we have initially put down to innumerable bees turns out to be hordes of voracious mozzies - the result of the recent floods. We are kindly given two mozzie coils to burn by a generous Swiss woman. We light these and spend the day reading, wreathed in strange smelling smoke - reminiscent of some parties from the 60s. The critters aren’t so bad during the day and compared with Mt Albert mozzies are not nearly as deadly- mainly irritating.
The campground is a triangular shape with the river on two sides- a vulnerable spot should the river flood. Which it did unfortunately. In the afternoon we make use of the piscine to cool down.
Sunday morning though, they are at their worst and this means that packing up, taking down our tent and loading our bikes is a one handed affair as one hand is also needed for swatting. We wish the wonderful young couple managing the ground all the best for what has so far been a very quiet summer. They are preparing for their 4th trip to India- maybe to escape voracious insects. We take a quiet D road across country to a beautiful spot beside the river at Seurre where we breakfast royally in the sunshine on meusli and fruit and brew up restorative coffee.
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In the river I notice some wet suited figures long distance swimming with the flow while rowers and kayakers make use of the wide expanse of water. The Ride continues to provide lots of interest, with dragon boat racing at St Jean de Losne and lots of canal boats spotted, several with NZ flags on them.
About midday the heat becomes pretty intense and we stop in the shade beside the canal for lunch and a snooze.
Later we reach the Rhone Canal at Dole and have a beer after exploring the old part of the town- once dependent on the river for milling.
We leave the band playing a medley of Rod Stewart numbers in reasonably accented English, ‘tonaards zee naaard…’ and in the slightly cooler late afternoon head out of town to Orchamps where we find a basic campground near the river with no mozzies, but no toilet paper, no toilet seats (what’s not to like about toilet seats??). Still the showers are hot. It is the night of France’s demise in the football. Hopes have been high at the start of the evening but after initial whoops and gasps from our neighbours, there is only subdued silence and the odd whimper. I felt a twinge of sympathy before drifting off.
Today's ride: 65 km (40 miles)
Total: 1,421 km (882 miles)
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