Sunday, May 2, 2010
It rained and it rained some more during the night and still going when we woke up, worrying puddles forming on the roof of the tent and there was nothing else to do but to lie in the sleeping bag and wait it out. We had looked at the long range weather forecast and hoped it would be true what it said, showers in the morning only. and guess what, after a while it did stop. Still looked threatening though so we moved everything under the overhang of the ablution block, cooked ourselves a hearty breakfast of 4 eggs, mushrooms and green peppers, packed up and were on our way, the first climb of the day.
A screenshot of the route we took today.
Soon the climb was over and we cycled through lovely fields of yellow and green. The skies are still leaden though every now and then the sun peeps through.
The velo route soon took us down to sea level again where we could admire some awesome weathering of the cliffs
and the people in the pictures 🙂
We had intended to take it easy today and only do the 40 kms or so to get to the municipal camping of Le Havre and indeed, we got there at 15:00. Problem was, camping closed down and no other camping in Le Havre. Ok, netbook out, find nearest camping, oh, other side of the Seine, no problem, just across the Pont de Normandie. With some nifty navigating we got quite close and then we found out that no bicycles are allowed and the next bridge is 20 kms or so away. So off we went and with lots of asking the locals we eventually got to the bridge kinda buggered
Netbook out again to look for nearest camping, get waypoints into gps and off we went.
Another 20 kms to the camping. We were worried because we didn’t see the usual signs to the camping and it was getting now quite late so when I saw a local farmer getting into his car I quickly asked where the camping was, he replied ‘It is still 10 kms but I don’t think it is open’.
Such bad luck needs a bit of a reprieve so when inquired if it would be ok to camp on his lawn and, after getting permission from his wife, he agreed we breathed a sigh of relief.
The “lawn” was rather bumpy though and I thought the concrete in front of his garage would be a better place, that was ok too and in the end we pitched the tent inside the garage and just as well as it blew and rained during the night but we were snug as the proverbial bugs in a rug.