The pressure is on!

It's me again team (Mike), thought I'd shoot through an update, because we booked our ferry to Guernsey from St Malo, and the pressure is on to get there. We were aiming for the ferry next monday but decided yesterday that since we're awesome, that we'd give ourselves a few extra days by catching the ferry this friday!  This gives us about 45k a day, every day to get to St Malo on time, which with the cold and rain will be interesting!!

Nothing like a deadline to keep us focused (and the excitement of 5 chill days in Guernsey - timing has to be tight because there's only one ferry a week from Guernsey to Jersey which we'd booked for next wednesday). 

So since we left you in Nantes, we've been making steady progress and are now in Brittany.

Friday Nantes to Chalandière 34k

We left Nantes through a hectic roundabout (as my dad predicted) hell, and some tricky riding, to finally get back into the country and some relaxed riding on small roads. Our first stop for the day was a super cute village where one of the residents has been slowly turning their house into Snow White's house. It was awesome!.  

After lunch and a visit to the house, we hit the supermarket to grab food for the night (and breakfast as nothing available near our accom). We then pressed on eventually joining the bike path along the Nantes to Brest canal, which was smooth if not a little muddy. Our accom for the night was an awesome room at a remote and beautiful camp site where we were the only guests. 

Snow White's House

Our Campsite Room

Saturday Chalandière to Notre Dame de Grâce 39k

Saturday we woke with a smile, and packed up, feeling confident, and headed back onto the canal path. This confidence continued to lunch when we stopped for some very cheesy pizza, and again a grocery shopping trip to get supplies for the night. Unfortunately that's when the rain started but being as tough as we are we packed up and as it eased we headed back onto the canal path. Without much alternative we just put the power down and headed for our "granny flat" on a farm 13k away. This however meant that mud and grit off the path was flying everywhere, to the point where our bikes were grinding and struggling to cope!  Our determination to get out of the rain and to a shower overcame the bikes' reluctance to continue and saw us arrive successfully, where about 15 jugs of water managed to wash most of the mud off our panniers, bikes and jackets!

Beautiful Canal Path

Damage caused by Beautiful Canal Path

Undaunted!

Sunday Notre Dame de Grâce to St Grave 50k

Yesterday we woke up and in a fit of excitement after overcoming the odds, booked our ferry from St Malo, and then said goodbye to another stone cottage to head back into the light rain. This time choosing to stay on the roads for a bit as even the bike path guide warned to stay off the canal path in the off season or after heavy rain - OK we get it!.   

After a while we came back to the canal path, and deiced to take it and take it slow to minimise mud which was very relaxing and worked!  Then another grocery stop (ok - yes we've decided to probably stop tonight in a town, where there will be a restaurant - yay), and a comfort lunch break at McDonalds - yes I know it seems crazy but after days on the road, in the rain, Maccas is a welcome rest from it all. But then of course, it was back on the bikes, and after some continuous hills on the roads in the morning we faced a serious climb up to our granny flat for the night (and another awesome warm shower).

So, we're about to head off on the paths again, so another day of adventure, and hopefully - progress towards St Malo!

 Even the cows thought we were nuts heading off into the rain

We passed Jupiter - they have the solar system model here - at this scale the sun is about 200k  away ... north of St Malo!

More beautiful path - with less mud!!