avoidingeurope

Thoughts and tales from the saddle - on my own in Europe.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Day 100 - Rodez - South-Central France

I've been on holiday. Met up with friends and ended up staying there for 9 days. I reacquainted myself with many things - people, conversation, laughter, late nights, too much beer, hangovers, sitting around not doing much, not having much to do, eating cheese. A proper break. I even spent many hours not thinking about 'the trip'. Not thinking about cycling, about finding somewhere to sleep the night, finding a shop, making dinner. It rested my mind, and my body. It was good.

I thought the hard part was going to be returning to life on my own, on the road, but I've slipped back into that easily, almost immediately. It's a familiar routine now. The hard part was the cycling - I arrived in Rodez yesterday afternoon absolutely exhausted after only 30 miles. I barely had the energy to put the tent up and shop for supplies, and, after a shower, I did something I'd not done since Day One, in Combourg - I slept during the day, waking up at about 8pm, still exhausted. I had some dinner and went back to sleep. You don't realise until you stop for a while just how hard, physically, it is to live like this.

I was going to move on today but after a lazy morning I didn't really feel like it and wanted to see a bit of the town. I'll move on tomorrow, heading for Millau and then picking a route down and into Italy. The roads and mountains look like they'll make route-choosing interesting, but hopefully not too dangerous.

6 Comments:

  • At 8:07 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Good to hear you back on the road agian and enjoying it. Keep us posted, thanks for a great holiday. Tania

     
  • At 4:13 pm, Blogger Unknown said…

    I have to apologise.

    What arrived in Salles Courbaties on a sunny Saturday afternoon was a fit young cyclist who had been living on a healthy diet of fruit, carbohydrates and mineral water.

    He said he was going to stay a few days. Maybe three or four to rest.

    We duly fed him on barbeque food, chocolate and lager. Lots of lager. And some guiness - because its good for you.

    He decided to stay a couple more days. He kept saying he needed to sort his stuff out. He kept having hangovers, staying in bed late and talking at the level of a small child (luckily we had one on hand to translate).

    By day nine we had reduced him to this:-
    http://www.avoidingeurope.com/images/salles_courbaties.jpg

    Hence the struggle getting to Rodez. In fact he had probelms just getting his bike out of the garden and onto the road. Lightweight.

    It was great to see you again Percy - good luck with the next six months!

     
  • At 3:22 pm, Blogger Percy Herbert said…

    Ha ha! Thanks for that, Rog. I am actually stroking my dubious facial hair in a pensive and intelligent manner there, it just doesn't look like it.

    Good to see you too, although I might request that no more meet ups are planned until my return, to give me some chance of completing this year!

    Summer season in Italy promises parties though...

     
  • At 11:50 am, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Testing how long comments take to appear-Broadsword

     
  • At 5:19 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Haven`t seen him look like that since.........Talking Heads.....and Christmas......and....well perhaps its not that unusual.

    If it`s more mountains en route to Italy then he might yet qualify for a jersey of peas. (Do pay attention at the back)

    Broadsword

     
  • At 6:25 pm, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Comments should appear instantly - hit F5 to refresh...

     

Post a Comment

<< Home