Now, doesn’t that sound better? Bet you’re tired of us talking about the wind. But as much as even we don’t want to believe it – today was the worse yet.
We had 35km headwinds pretty much dead on all day. Our average was only 13.4k. What made it worse, was that all morning we were traversing what appeared in the guidebooks as a beautiful path along the cliffs north of La Rochelle, overlooking the ocean. What that means, of course, is that we were atop a hill with nothing to block the relentless torrent of air.
Nothing, except the occasional former Nazi bunkers that dot the coastal ridge.
Later in the day we began following more canals, and even added a touch of rain. But while much of the paths were in reasonable shape, there were many short sections that reminded us of the early canals, single track, rocky, and even a few oyster shells mixed in.
So, as if the wind were not enough, soon after passing through this flock of sheep we had a complete tire blow out with a 2cm gash. We had to use our spare, and there are no bike shops for at least another 60km.
But we have hope. The weather forecast for tomorrow says that the headwinds will be dropping to 20-25km!