After a marathon sleep I woke at 9am. After a few goodbyes and a cup of coffee I set off for Colmar. Again the original plan was to stay away from the highways and stick to the rural scenic route. Unfortunately the route that I went was maddeningly slow and industrial. There was only me and slow, tight arsed Dutchmen who did not want to pay the toll roads. Change of plan, get to Colmar and settle in. So - the way toll roads work is this. You get on at a bo...

After the excitement of the bull fights in Bilbao, I needed another day to recover and being it was a public holiday and nothing was open except the odd pizza shop and a couple of bars, that's pretty much what I did. The following day I came out of the blocks clumsily and feeling pretty dusty but still managed to strike a blow at a reasonable hour. I was soon under way headed for the French border, making it up as I went along. The original plan I had was to c...

It's been a while since I have done any "blogging" so I have some things to catch up on. After my first night camping in Bourg Agentile I made my way to the bike shop owned by a Frenchman I met at the Isle of Man. He did not k ow I was coming and was a little surprised to see me. Christophe is a friendly bloke who had ties in Australia and was happy to let me work on my bike in his shop. He organized for me to stay at another couples house. Nico and Marg hav...

Had a good day yesterday. The panniers were off the bike and I took full advantage of this and went for a ride through the cinque terra national park. I found a lot of good roads. Some of them had been heavily eroded to the point that the Armco rail had fallen down the cliffs that it once guarded. Exciting stuff. Time got away on me a bit and before I knew it I had been riding for a good 5 hours. An excellent day. Following my return I set off with washing...