The weather has been varied and changeable today. Thunder had been forecast and we did hear it whilst packing up, but it past us by fortunately. It was a day of firsts - our first puncture (slow thorn on Thomas' bike quicker to change the whole inner tube than look for the hole), Adrian almost ran over both a large lizard and a snake, and we also saw a small wild boar in the forest... None of which we managed to get pictures of. We also passed a couple of other French touring families today for the first time, although with two children at the most and none younger than their teens.
We left very late - about 11.45am - with Adrian announcing that it was not far to go today, about 18 miles. I planned the route and thought it was a longer day than that, but didn't want to argue with the geography graduate and his GPS :-) we immediately made it longer by heading off in the wrong direction through Mimizan for 2 miles! Some quite steep hills followed and then the sun really came out. Heading inland now towards the lakes, we are really missing the fresher sea breeze. I noticed that the paths were not so good today. Rather than being pristine, there were the odd shallow pothole, tree roots or gravel. Still very good by English standard, but a little uncomfortable on the bottom fully loaded if you don't see them coming!
We had lunch on a picnic bench with a French cyclist on a 10-day 800km tour. We swapped stories! Adrian confidently said we were over half way, but a quick look at a paper map confirmed that we were a long way off that! We eventually hit the lakes and passed through some lovely lake-side resorts with the hope that ours would be equally as good. When we arrived at camping pipiou we were not disappointed. Right on the lake AND a swimming pool with slides! It was a hot job putting up the tent - Adrian did it while I investigated the facilities with Hannah. I then made up the bedroom and we all headed off to the pool for a much needed cool down. Unfortunately it had by then clouded over and turned quite windy. The pool water was warm and we spent about an hour there. We hadn't managed to find a shop en route and the one at the campsite was very basic, so we decided to break into our emergency rations for tea - a simple pasta and pesto! Rather than sit on a picnic blanket by the tent, we carried the cooking gear and plates down to the lake and cooked by the water sitting more comfortably at a picnic table. Although it was still very windy (plenty of windsurfers on the lake), the sun came back out making it a beautiful backdrop. The children had a play in the park and we made them hot chocolate before heading back and getting them into bed a little earlier than has become the norm - 8.40pm
A hefty 24.38 miles cycled today.
Trying to navigate our way through Patentis-en-Born
Fun pool
Obligatory selfie!
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