Day 86 – Ussel to Felletin
Thursday July 28, 2011, 57 km (35 miles) – Total so far: 3,065 km (1,905 miles)
We awoke to a pretty cold morning. There was high cloud in the sky. but it didn’t look like it would rain. We did the usual routine. Mike got up and made a cup of tea, I stayed in bed.
We backtracked to the supermarket and picked up some bread and ham for lunch.
We then continued on up a steep hill. Mike ran out of steam and started pushing his bike up. “I’ll wait for you at the top” I said as I cycled past him, stopping about 2 feet in front of him. “Think I’ll give my knees a break” I said as I started pushing my bike as well.
Most of the day was really hilly. We were uncertain which direction to head. We knew if we headed too far NW then we would end up on mount villechache something and that was pretty high. The tourist offices only have information for their own region. Trying to get information from them about other regions is useless. They don’t know and they don’t care. This is something that has started to piss me off as sometimes we only touch on a region.
We stop in a town which is in a new region but couldnt find a tourist office. It is a pretty small town, so we figured it probably didn’t have one. We find a seat, which is possibly in someones back yard, eat a couple of pain au raisins and study our maps. It is 25 kms North-East to Crocq or 37km North to the bigger city of Aubusson. We were unsure if Crocq would have a hotel or camping ground as a lot of the smaller towns don’t have anything. The extra 37km will push our kms to about 64 kms for the day, which is a lot when we aren’t used to all the hills.
We decided to push on the 37 km to Ambusson as we know they would have a hotel if the weather turned bad. We hop back on our bikes in the direction of Ambusson and viola, the tourist office!
We stop, dump all our old region maps in the bin, load up on new region maps and are on our way. There is a town 28km km away called Felletin, which has a hotel and a camping ground. We arrive in Felletin feeling pretty knackered after a hilly 52km. We stop and the sun comes out. The decision for camping is made.
We go to the tourist office to find out where the camping ground is. “It’s only 5km out of town” the tourist officer anounces proudly.
“Shit, I don’t reckon I can do another 5km, especially if there are hills” I say. We check out the hotel. It looked pretty 1 starish. “OK, lets camp. We’ll go to that shop over there and get some cream and I’ll do a mushroom and had creamy pasta with that tin of mushrooms we bought the other day”. Deal done, we grabbed some cream (a 3 pack was cheaper than a single pack) and 4 beers.
We leave the shop and there is a big black cloud hovering over us. after 30 minutes procrastination, I decide we should stay in the hotel. It was only 44 euros and the bathroom was right next door. Thing is 44 euros turns in 75 euros once we have dinner. oh well, it was comfortable. But of course it didnt rain.