Day 8: Royan to Lacanau

The first part of our journey from Royan to Lacanau, would have to be made by ferry, to cross the Gironde, a body of water that eventually becomes the Garonne and Dordogne rivers that flow around Bordeaux. Thus on yet another wet and windy morning, we first had to cycle along the seafront, and await the ferry across. The crossing would only take about 45 minutes, but with the wait at the port, this would ensure that we had a late start, not really getting going on the bikes until about 11am.

Once across, we made good progress along the cycle paths that pass down the coast, and through numerous campsites and resort towns. It was in one such resort that we stopped for lunch, and for the first time all trip were disappointed with our food. Dad's ceasar salad was apparently, in his words, the worst food anyone had ever served him for the past decade. Not fully fortified then, it was no suprise that the afternoon stint through forests, taking in some really poor quality paths more suited to serious off road mountian biking, made the going quite difficult.

We arrived at the golf complex in Lacanau, where our hotel for the night was situated, at around 5pm. After having a drink and some food at the hotel, and with not a lot going on there, we decided to venture into town Lacanau, a 2 mile journey in the most expensive taxi in the world (no mroe than 5 minutes in the taxi came to 20 euros!). Once there, we were surprised by how lively such a small town was on a monday night. Having sampled a few beers in various bars, we ended up in an Australian bar listening to some pretty awful live band, when the heavens opened once again. As the bar was about to close, we decided to ask the barman to call a taxi, only to be informed that there were none available. With the storm really raging (and the barman informing us that this was the first rain they had had since March!), the barman, an Aussie himself, offered to drive us back if we would wait a short while. We were more than happy to oblige, and so after sampling some of the house whisky, we were taken back by the kind barman, and avoided having to pay another fortune on an actual taxi!

Distance: 60 miles