28 May, 2015

The sun is up early and it looks set for a warm day.  We’re not sure where we’ll end up tonight, it will either be a short day or an extra long one, depending on how the cycling goes.  This is because after a place called Devize, which is 55 kilometres away from our start point, there are no other sizeable towns or campsites for a further 60 or so kilometres.

The first part of the day is spent alongside the Loire.  We are approaching the start or end point of the ‘Loire á Velo’, depending on which way along the route you are travelling, which is the part of the Eurovelo 6 route running from the Atlantic coast to the confluence of the Loire with the river Allier.  Loungers are provided at ‘Kilometre 0’  – presumably for you the lie down and recover if you’ve just cycled from the Atlantic or to lie and down and prepare if you are about to set off for the Atlantic.  Shortly after this point we leave the Loire for a while to follow the canal tow path again.  This is where we hope to make good progress.

Alas, it is not to be.  Although the tow path is surfaced, it is very bumpy and has a slippy top surface of gravel.  So, progress is relatively slow.  It is also relatively uninteresting terrain, making it feel like hard work.  We do see one or two boats, pass half-a-dozen locks or so and pass over various rivers on canal bridges (these appear to be common in these parts), but overall it is one of the less interesting days.

We take the short day option and head for the campsite at Devize, which turns out to be a gem.  You can tell what the campsite is going to be like by the person manning the reception, for example, at the last campsite a man wearing washed-out, baggy jogging bottoms and a scruffy top emerged yawning and stretching to sign us in.  The campsite pitches must have been mown about once a month and were overgrown with grass and had big clumps of soggy mowings everywhere.  The toilets would have been modern in about 1950 – you get the picture.  Today’s campsite has flower beds everywhere, the pitches are flat, with short mown grass and all the facilities are clean and modern.  The girl on the reception is both cheerful and helpful.  If the place is as nice as it looks we’ll take a rest day tomorrow.