Almost There (Sept. 3)

At the risk of repeating myself … hmmmm … I don’t know why I say that because it’s pretty clear that I’m about to repeat myself and clearly it’s not all that risky of a proposition. If nothing else, all I’m doing is drawing attention to the repetition which may have otherwise gone unnoticed. Of course, dedicating a whole paragraph to this is just, well … silly.

My evening at Mervans Municipal Campground was very quiet and I woke to another nice sunrise. Not as nice as some of the others but still nice. And I guess so long as you see the sunrise in the morning you’re having a somewhat decent day. That said, the sunrises continue to get continually later and the sunsets are happening continually earlier. That’s a bit of sadness. Times two!

The early sunsets always make camping a bit tougher as it generally means spending longer periods of time in my tent. On the upside, there haven’t been many bugs so I haven’t been forced into my tent for quite some time. The midges of Scotland are but a distant memory … actually, I remember them vividly.

Somewhat unrelated, I think on my next trip I’ll be tempted to bring some sort of (small) chair or stool or other such luxury sitting item. I mean, I’ve carried a tripod for over 3,000 km on this trip and used it once. ONCE! I’d say I’m surprised but, well … who was I kidding? (Apparently me!). I’m guessing there are lightweight camping stools somewhere out there that are about the same size and weight as my tripod. And given the lack of picnic tables at campgrounds, well … having somewhere to sit would be a nice luxury. (Don’t judge me).

For no particular reason, I opted to forego breakfast this morning. My breakfast rations weren’t exactly inspiring and I figured I’d pass a grocery store at some point. I did. And for what it’s worth, buying baguettes in the morning is SO much better than in the late afternoon. So fresh. So good. No wonder people buy so many of them around here. And yes, I’m still working on my Nutella addiction – I figure I should be fully addicted in three more days.

With breakfast officially behind me, I set my sights on the road ahead. And it was a much different road than I’ve seen in quite a while. There were hills. A lot of them. Not big hills or anything remotely daunting but definitely hills that required changing gears occasionally on the way up and actually being able to coast on the way down. It was fun. And certainly the most notable part of the day’s ride.

I began the day about 160 km from Lyon St. Exupery Airport. Doable in a day if necessary but clearly that wasn’t necessary. Instead, I figured I’d wrap up this European tour of mine with two short riding days. And after having done over 100 km for each of the past five days, today’s ride definitely seemed to go by quickly.

It was mid-afternoon when I arrived in Bourg-en-Bresse. I’m not going to lie, the temptation to continue riding was pretty strong. However, I knew if I went much further then I would be so close to the airport that’d I would feel I had to finish the journey. I wasn’t ready to do that. And so I decided to end the day’s ride in Bourg-en-Bresse. And the lack of campgrounds in the area led me to the decision to get my first hotel of the journey. Okay, technically I stayed in a hotel before and after Kenya but those were flight related. Coincidently though, the hotel stays in Amsterdam were at the Ibis chain of hotels and tonight’s hotel is also of the Ibis variety. I have to say, I’ve rather liked my previous Ibis stays – I also stayed in one when I was in New Zealand. The Ibis Styles in Bourg-en-Bresse continued that favourable trend.

I’m now settled in my small room with my tent and tent fly hanging precariously around the room to dry out. My hotel stay tonight and two more over the next two nights means that, if all goes well, the next time I set up my tent will be back in Canada to air it out and give it a long overdue cleaning. But it’s done its job over the past couple of months.

Completely unrelated, during one of my WiFi stops today I received a text from Moritz. Apparently he was on the Warm Showers Facebook page and discovered that “Ken” is starting a ride along the Rhine. I only mention it because I stayed with Ken on my way down the California coast last year and we ended up going to Six Flags Magic Mountain. Anyway, hopefully Ken and Moritz will meet up. It’s amazing how small the cycling community can be sometimes. And so big at other times. Either way, it really is a great community.

Today’s totals:
Distance travelled: 74.68 km
Ride time: 3:29:52
Average speed: 21.35 km/h
Maximum speed: 43.09 km/h