Dag 24: Saint Jean-de-Muzols - Le Pouzin (62 km)
22 juni 2018 - Le Pouzin, Frankrijk
On our rest day the plan was to take an old touristic steam train and go a bit deeper and higher into the Ardéche. We'd been told the train would go three times a day. So we let the first two go to take photo's as they were going along our campsite. The third didn't go.
So we changed plans again, visited Tournon-sur-Rhône, bought three postcards with stamps and forgot to send them. On the plus side, I managed to book a flight to Malawi in July to visit my elder son Bastiaan (and om now getting plenty of ads from onlibe ticket offices for prices that are all fake. Our final destination isn"t Barcelona anymore, but the Mediteranean Sea. Even if we would have arrived timely in Barcelona, we wouldn't have had enough time to visit it. A pity as Messi might well be back than.
Today a complete different story and experience: the Mistral. This northern wind is characteristic to the Rhona valley and blew strongly with flurries up to 6 beaufort, basically in the back, but sometimes in all directions and not ours. Weird. Branches came off the trees dropping in front of our bicycles. We had to cross the Rhône a couple of times, mostly on seperate cycle tracks, but not always; one could feel some of the old bridges shaking. Two others things gave to think today. We ordered a sandwich in a restaurant, but they couldn' be served 'as we are a restaurant'. The Via Rhona is very well signposted, especially in the Drôme Department. However, at a given moment we were sent to a sort of parking place whilst the track itself seemed to continue straight forward. Having succesfully followed the signs so far, we took the exit. just to find that the acces point to the Via at the other side of the parking lot appeared to be blocked by huge rocks. So we had to go back and follow the track rightaway. There were however. for a change, picknick tables and banks available, even shadowed. But also in the full wind.
So we changed plans again, visited Tournon-sur-Rhône, bought three postcards with stamps and forgot to send them. On the plus side, I managed to book a flight to Malawi in July to visit my elder son Bastiaan (and om now getting plenty of ads from onlibe ticket offices for prices that are all fake. Our final destination isn"t Barcelona anymore, but the Mediteranean Sea. Even if we would have arrived timely in Barcelona, we wouldn't have had enough time to visit it. A pity as Messi might well be back than.
Today a complete different story and experience: the Mistral. This northern wind is characteristic to the Rhona valley and blew strongly with flurries up to 6 beaufort, basically in the back, but sometimes in all directions and not ours. Weird. Branches came off the trees dropping in front of our bicycles. We had to cross the Rhône a couple of times, mostly on seperate cycle tracks, but not always; one could feel some of the old bridges shaking. Two others things gave to think today. We ordered a sandwich in a restaurant, but they couldn' be served 'as we are a restaurant'. The Via Rhona is very well signposted, especially in the Drôme Department. However, at a given moment we were sent to a sort of parking place whilst the track itself seemed to continue straight forward. Having succesfully followed the signs so far, we took the exit. just to find that the acces point to the Via at the other side of the parking lot appeared to be blocked by huge rocks. So we had to go back and follow the track rightaway. There were however. for a change, picknick tables and banks available, even shadowed. But also in the full wind.
