We had two nice rest days in Angers, although walking 12 kms a day is hardly a rest. we visited the old town and did a tour around the chateau. The next day we visited Decathlon as we needed more stuff. Mike needed a new mirror as his broke when his bike fell over. I needed a foam roller for my legs. We also picked up some brake pads, chain oil, and a clothes line.

It was hard work getting back on the bikes today. To avoid Angers, Mike navigated backwards rather than forwards, and there seemed to be a lot of hills.

We were looking for the Eurovelo 6 route which runs through the loire valley, then the Danube all the way to the Black Sea. We are only going to follow the loire to Basel, the will follow the Rhine river up to Rotterdam.

There was a lot of mucking around trying to find this route today. When we finally found it, it was following yucky roads. I saw a bunch of cycle tourers following a nice path along the river. They seemed to know where they were going so I suggested we follow them.

It was fantastic, cruising along a flat cycle path beside the river, wind in my hair, not a care in the world. Then it dawned on us. We were going the wrong way! We were heading back towards Nantes and we didn’t want to go that way.

Eventually we found the route and all was good with the world. It was clearly marked and it was just a matter of following the signs. Before we came away, Mike had downloaded the route onto his Garmin. But now, his route is telling us different things to the signs. We decided to follow the signs.

After a while, the signs gave us two choices. We could follow the quiet country roads to the next town for 6.5kms. Or we could turn off and follow the river to the same town for only 6kms. It was a no brainer really, we would follow the river.

It turns out the river path was on loose gravel and in full sun. It was hard work and not even that picturesque. It was the longest 6kms I’d ever done. Probably because is was 30 degrees and the heat was getting to us. it seemed no matter how much water I drank, I couldn’t kill the thirst.

At the town we stopped and had a coke to refresh ourselves, then continued 14 kms to the next camp.

We crossed over the river and the path was much nicer on the other side. Firm path and pockets of shade from the trees. All was good with the world again.

We’re at a nice camping spot tonight. The have a marquee where campers can shelter and cook a meal. The have a gas burner, fridge and microwave. These are things we take for granted in Nz, but it’s very rare in France.

So far there are two other cycle tourers camping here and we saw two walkers come in, one with a donkey carrying all her stuff. It’s currently eeyoreing in the distance. Just hope it’s not near our tent!

44 kms today and we’re exhausted’