I know an old man who swallowed a fly...

Guenrouet – Suce sur Erdre      around 57  ascent 330ms

It transpired that our hostess of last night is a practising masseuse in the nicest sense of the word, and this morning I lay on a bed of water while water pressure lumped its way up and down the back of my body. Okay as a one off, not sure about making it a regular habit! By 09.30 we had hit the lumpy, bumpy trail again with the intention of stopping a little short of Nantes. Past experience has shown that if we try to traverse a large town at the end of a longish ride, we get more lost than we need to and tempers are a little fragile. Well that was the plan.

There's a hole in this tube somewhere.

After about twenty kilometres I was stopped by hearing Al’s whistle, turned round and found him gazing at a flat trailer tyre! I left him to repair the damage and hooted off to the little town some three kms further on to buy some nourishment for lunch. On my return, I found things had gone reasonably well and the tyre was now reinflated and remaining so.

On our first night of B and B, well in the morning actually during breakfast, we met a couple who were making the trip to Nantes on a tandem. Very brave and still wed after 15 years! Since then, despite their greater speed, we have met them each day to say Hi. Shortly after today’s meeting and Al’s puncture, I noted with some alarm, that the other trailer tyre was looking particularly soft. No punctures in thousands of kilometres ridden and now two in as many hours. Never mind, Mr. Magic fixed the second puncture and while doing so realised that the fly he had swallowed earlier had left a message and his throat was sore and swollen. Things not quite going to plan!

So, a slight change in plan was required. As we began to change our plan we met up with a couple of lads almost lost. Generously, we shared our map and off they went (lovely boys they were too). We left the track and took to the road. They followed the signs. Half an hour later they came up behind us again, despite their youth and greater speed. We enjoyed a moment of hilarity and we continued along the road which they declined as it went a bit uphill! Youngsters!

By this time we were seriously behind schedule, but agreed to stop in Suce sur Erdre which is a little further from Nantes than we had anticipated but heyho tomorrow is another day.