The Fold Up Bike Trip

Day 3
Monday 15.06.09    Chateauroux to Ruffillac (Dordogne)       230m

Slept like a log, woke up in the fireplace :)
Woke to the sound of light rain on the tent. By the time I got up it had stopped. Better make plans for a wet day I think. I get packed up in the dry so that’s a good start.

Waste time zigzagging back and forth, trying to avoid the motorway and finally arrive in a small village called St Sulphice for breakfast at about 11.00 am.
Into the bar/cafe come a guy of about 60 years of age, shorts, socks and sandals, gold chain – spot the ‘Retired Brit Abroad’. Bored out of his mind and drinking pints at 11.00 am. Complaining about his shrinking pension. He comments on how quiet it is here but says he wouldn’t want to go back to Britian. Calls some of the old locals ‘the living dead’. I wonder what they call him? Maybe the Dream did not live up to expectations.

I prise myself away from him and go to find a petrol station.
It starts to rain so I get out the waterproofs. Just as well as it starts to rain the ‘Chats and Chiens’! Seems like I’m heading for a wet campsite. I make the mistake of putting a major town, Perigoux, as a via point into my sat nav. This results in my going around the town and back out. I make a complete balls up of this and somehow add lots of miles onto my journey. This is not unusual, I just don’t like to admit it!

I stop at 2.00 pm at a small village called La Douze (the 12). The usual one horse town with one bar. As usual the bar has excellent food and I tuck into Steak Frites, glass of wine and coffee, trying to spin it out in the hope that it will stop raining.
I finally get back on the bike and its teeming down. Oh well, head down. I reach Rouffillac, still pouring down, so I chicken out and book into a hotel across the road from the campsite. How on earth did I manage to turn 130 miles into 230?

Do the boring stuff. Wash a couple of shirts and sort out my gear – the room is in Chinese Laundry Mode, ie everything out and hanging all over the place to dry out.
At about 7.00 pm I walk to the local village and have a beer. In the local paper I notice the weather forecast for the next couple of days is good. Back at the hotel I indulge in a 4 course meal and settle in for the night. This was a good move as I noticed the campsite over the road was extremely wet and some of the campers were coming into the restaurant for a meal and a bit of comfort out of the rain. Its supposed to be a rest day tomorrow but, as the weather is so miserable I think I’ll move on.

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