Blog
Bike Europe Blog
Day 13 - Vannos to Auberives-sur-Vareze
By DanielToday is the day that the van goes in to get the brakes fixed so we are alone all day and have to carry everything we need so getting ready in the morning takes slightly longer than usual but we still manage to get away by 7.45am which seems to be our average. We also know that the town we are heading for has a campsite which is in John's book which makes life easier.
It is another clear day and it is going to be a hot one so we want to get as much done as we can while its still cool. The first ten miles are very fast and there is no way we can keep up this kind of pace for the whole ride. The legs are also feeling a bit empty today as the massive mileage starts to take its toll.
We stop at 30 miles to swap bags which are already starting to cause back aches, I'm so pleased we decided to do this with a van rather than carrying everything ourselves! In the car park we stopped in there are lizards on the walls which is a real sign we are getting to the hotter regions...
At this point Kevin reveals he needs to do a number two - now this is fairly bad timing as the only time we generally get to do those are at the campsites. He'll have to hold it!
Over the last couple of days I have been using my Garmin Edge 305 (GPS) to help us navigate and its been really useful. It doesn't work like satnav though it'll only show you where preprogrammed waypoints are. Today's route took us around the outskirts of Lyon and I always expected it to be difficult to navigate. I wasn't expecting the supposedly waterproof to 1 metre GPS to start steaming up on the inside though... it obviously couldn't cope with the rain a few days ago which is annoying because Paul's 205 had no problem and our £10 speedometers also survived and they've been through much worse.
The steaming up got so bad that I could only read the display once I had kept the Edge in the shade for at least 5 minutes. Not best pleased!
To make matters worse the display also froze at a critical moment. We were heading south and were looking for signs to Valence, a fairly big town, and I was at the back of the group. As we approached a roundabout I had to make a quick decision about which exit to take and tell the group and according to my GPS it was left. We continued along that road for about 3 miles before I got the feeling that perhaps it wasn't right... the signs were showing Bourg instead of Valence and we were no longer heading towards the sun. This was confirmed by Paul when he said should we be heading North East - we stopped to check the GPS properly and my display had frozen sending us the wrong way at that roundabout - argh! So back we went, an extra unneccesary 6 miles to a journey that was already long enough. Apart from the steaming up, the frozen display (which it has only done once) and the broken altimeter (it thinks I'm constantly at 65616 feet which is annoying as it no longer records all the mountains we are crossing) the Edge is great - I will be having words with my supplier though when I get back home.
Finally we get to the outskirts of Valence and its a bit of a nightmare - loads of lorries and not many signposts. We are supposed to be staying on the D75 but the road mysteriously turns into the D76 without warning... fortunately I spotted it and stopped everyone but as we return to the roundabout the lads get a bit confused and go were they thought I went rather than were I actually went. So I'm off climbing this hill, head down, expecting them to be behind me but they are actually heading back down the road we just came in on. I notice halfway up the hill that I'm alone so I wait at a bus stop for about 5 minutes but still no sign. I phone Matthew and I manage to tell him to turn around before his battery dies. Anyway I head back down the hill and wait at the roundabout for them to return. Another 5 mins and they all appear - OK back on route then. To save any future confusion we try to stick together a bit more.
At about 70 miles into the route we meet our biggest mountain so far - it must be about 3 miles of steady climbing which means 3 miles of gritted teeth and pain! We are rewarded when we get to the top by spectacular views, we can't spend too long admiring them though as Kevin still needs a poo!
We seem to ride along the top of the mountain for ages hoping that the turn off we are looking for appears soon. Finally it does and we can start the descent which is what makes climbing a mountain worthwhile. It's all over in a matter of minutes though but at the bottom of the hill is a sign for a campsite... about 2 miles down the road we reach this campsite but we aren't sure if its the one we are aiming for. We are expecting it to be called Les Nations and there are lots of flags outside so maybe this is it? It is a 4 star site and as we head down to the reception is it clear that it is a lot fancier than we are used to, it even has its own crazy golf course, this can't be right. Paul asks the receptionist if it is Les Nations and she says no that is 8km further down the road - oh well, back on the bikes then.
As we get nearer to Auberives the mountains that line the river Rhone start looming in the distance, hopefully there will be a road alongside the river so we don't have to do 80 miles of mountains tomorrow. Matthew decides to take a photo whilst riding but probably due to the lack of energy (I think it may be common sense personally) he manages to get his bag stuck in his wheel and has to do an emergency stop. What a wally!
Finally we get to Auberives and see the sign for the campsite, unfortunately there is one more hill to do and it really hurts - after 84 miles any kind of slope is difficult but this is very steep. The hill levels out and then the campsite appears.
We pull into the site hot, sweaty and tired and try to find the reception - we've never had to do this before because John has always been there first. Eventually we work out it is the house next to the entrance and we ring the doorbell and book our pitch. On the fairly small and quiet site we choose the pitch with the most shade and then just collapse. Kevin still needs a poo though but because John hasn't arrived yet we have no loo roll. Matthew tells him how to ask for it in French (don't mention Je t'aime!) and Kevin plucks up the courage to ask one of the caravanners - well after about 5 mins of hanging around and avoiding their dog he does. Off course she obliges and Kevin skips off to the toilets. Not long after John arrives with his lovely new brakes.
The usual stretching and pasta follows before we all collapse into the chairs and doze.
After a couple of hours of snoozing Matthew, Paul and Kevin go and wash our kit - Paul puts the shorts through the quality control test of sniffing the pads - nice!
John offers to treat us to a meal in town which is clearly an offer too good to refuse - as much as we love his pasta a bit of variety is always good. The trip into Valence is hot and smelly (that'll be my fault though, sorry Matthew!) and John also manages to jump a red light - oops! Valence appears to be full of parked cars - it takes us ages to find a space. By now we are pretty hungry and just want to eat so we start looking for a restaurant that does Pasta. We probably walk around the entire town centre for over an hour and only find 3 open restaurants - the first we saw, all next to each other and packed - none of them serve pasta either. It'll have to do though, I feel like I'm wasting away!
I don't know why all the other restaurants were shut, surely dinner time would be a good time to open? Maybe its because it August... where have I heard that before?
Anyway the food is really good and Paul finds out that steak with blood is actually not disgusting! Just a shame about the smokers sitting next to us and the annoying busker singing loudly and pestering for money.
By the time we get back to the site its 10.30 and the gate is shut so we grab everything we think we are going to need for the morning and starting walking to the pitch. Just as we go through the pedestrian gate a van pulls up at the vehicle gate and just slides the gate across... doh! So John goes back to the van and brings it in for the night. Then we sit down and have some cocoa. It's 11.45pm by the time I go to bed - I'm going to regret this late night in the morning!
Daniel
Distance: 86.43 miles
Time: 5:27:16
Average Speed: 15.85 mph
Weather: Hot all day
It is another clear day and it is going to be a hot one so we want to get as much done as we can while its still cool. The first ten miles are very fast and there is no way we can keep up this kind of pace for the whole ride. The legs are also feeling a bit empty today as the massive mileage starts to take its toll.
We stop at 30 miles to swap bags which are already starting to cause back aches, I'm so pleased we decided to do this with a van rather than carrying everything ourselves! In the car park we stopped in there are lizards on the walls which is a real sign we are getting to the hotter regions...
At this point Kevin reveals he needs to do a number two - now this is fairly bad timing as the only time we generally get to do those are at the campsites. He'll have to hold it!
Over the last couple of days I have been using my Garmin Edge 305 (GPS) to help us navigate and its been really useful. It doesn't work like satnav though it'll only show you where preprogrammed waypoints are. Today's route took us around the outskirts of Lyon and I always expected it to be difficult to navigate. I wasn't expecting the supposedly waterproof to 1 metre GPS to start steaming up on the inside though... it obviously couldn't cope with the rain a few days ago which is annoying because Paul's 205 had no problem and our £10 speedometers also survived and they've been through much worse.
The steaming up got so bad that I could only read the display once I had kept the Edge in the shade for at least 5 minutes. Not best pleased!
To make matters worse the display also froze at a critical moment. We were heading south and were looking for signs to Valence, a fairly big town, and I was at the back of the group. As we approached a roundabout I had to make a quick decision about which exit to take and tell the group and according to my GPS it was left. We continued along that road for about 3 miles before I got the feeling that perhaps it wasn't right... the signs were showing Bourg instead of Valence and we were no longer heading towards the sun. This was confirmed by Paul when he said should we be heading North East - we stopped to check the GPS properly and my display had frozen sending us the wrong way at that roundabout - argh! So back we went, an extra unneccesary 6 miles to a journey that was already long enough. Apart from the steaming up, the frozen display (which it has only done once) and the broken altimeter (it thinks I'm constantly at 65616 feet which is annoying as it no longer records all the mountains we are crossing) the Edge is great - I will be having words with my supplier though when I get back home.
Finally we get to the outskirts of Valence and its a bit of a nightmare - loads of lorries and not many signposts. We are supposed to be staying on the D75 but the road mysteriously turns into the D76 without warning... fortunately I spotted it and stopped everyone but as we return to the roundabout the lads get a bit confused and go were they thought I went rather than were I actually went. So I'm off climbing this hill, head down, expecting them to be behind me but they are actually heading back down the road we just came in on. I notice halfway up the hill that I'm alone so I wait at a bus stop for about 5 minutes but still no sign. I phone Matthew and I manage to tell him to turn around before his battery dies. Anyway I head back down the hill and wait at the roundabout for them to return. Another 5 mins and they all appear - OK back on route then. To save any future confusion we try to stick together a bit more.
At about 70 miles into the route we meet our biggest mountain so far - it must be about 3 miles of steady climbing which means 3 miles of gritted teeth and pain! We are rewarded when we get to the top by spectacular views, we can't spend too long admiring them though as Kevin still needs a poo!
We seem to ride along the top of the mountain for ages hoping that the turn off we are looking for appears soon. Finally it does and we can start the descent which is what makes climbing a mountain worthwhile. It's all over in a matter of minutes though but at the bottom of the hill is a sign for a campsite... about 2 miles down the road we reach this campsite but we aren't sure if its the one we are aiming for. We are expecting it to be called Les Nations and there are lots of flags outside so maybe this is it? It is a 4 star site and as we head down to the reception is it clear that it is a lot fancier than we are used to, it even has its own crazy golf course, this can't be right. Paul asks the receptionist if it is Les Nations and she says no that is 8km further down the road - oh well, back on the bikes then.
As we get nearer to Auberives the mountains that line the river Rhone start looming in the distance, hopefully there will be a road alongside the river so we don't have to do 80 miles of mountains tomorrow. Matthew decides to take a photo whilst riding but probably due to the lack of energy (I think it may be common sense personally) he manages to get his bag stuck in his wheel and has to do an emergency stop. What a wally!
Finally we get to Auberives and see the sign for the campsite, unfortunately there is one more hill to do and it really hurts - after 84 miles any kind of slope is difficult but this is very steep. The hill levels out and then the campsite appears.
We pull into the site hot, sweaty and tired and try to find the reception - we've never had to do this before because John has always been there first. Eventually we work out it is the house next to the entrance and we ring the doorbell and book our pitch. On the fairly small and quiet site we choose the pitch with the most shade and then just collapse. Kevin still needs a poo though but because John hasn't arrived yet we have no loo roll. Matthew tells him how to ask for it in French (don't mention Je t'aime!) and Kevin plucks up the courage to ask one of the caravanners - well after about 5 mins of hanging around and avoiding their dog he does. Off course she obliges and Kevin skips off to the toilets. Not long after John arrives with his lovely new brakes.
The usual stretching and pasta follows before we all collapse into the chairs and doze.
After a couple of hours of snoozing Matthew, Paul and Kevin go and wash our kit - Paul puts the shorts through the quality control test of sniffing the pads - nice!
John offers to treat us to a meal in town which is clearly an offer too good to refuse - as much as we love his pasta a bit of variety is always good. The trip into Valence is hot and smelly (that'll be my fault though, sorry Matthew!) and John also manages to jump a red light - oops! Valence appears to be full of parked cars - it takes us ages to find a space. By now we are pretty hungry and just want to eat so we start looking for a restaurant that does Pasta. We probably walk around the entire town centre for over an hour and only find 3 open restaurants - the first we saw, all next to each other and packed - none of them serve pasta either. It'll have to do though, I feel like I'm wasting away!
I don't know why all the other restaurants were shut, surely dinner time would be a good time to open? Maybe its because it August... where have I heard that before?
Anyway the food is really good and Paul finds out that steak with blood is actually not disgusting! Just a shame about the smokers sitting next to us and the annoying busker singing loudly and pestering for money.
By the time we get back to the site its 10.30 and the gate is shut so we grab everything we think we are going to need for the morning and starting walking to the pitch. Just as we go through the pedestrian gate a van pulls up at the vehicle gate and just slides the gate across... doh! So John goes back to the van and brings it in for the night. Then we sit down and have some cocoa. It's 11.45pm by the time I go to bed - I'm going to regret this late night in the morning!
Daniel
Distance: 86.43 miles
Time: 5:27:16
Average Speed: 15.85 mph
Weather: Hot all day
