We slept well, not waking till gone 8. Hoping to pack quickly we started pulling the empty panniers from our porch only to discover a colony of ants had moved in. Everything we picked up uncovered another mass of panicked ants running in all directions like tiny cockroaches in a sudden light. Then near the bottom of our pile of stuff we found hundreds of them with little white eggs, desperately trying to carry them off to safety. There was nothing for it but to remove and shake out every piece of equipment and spring clean the tent. So much for a speedy decamp today. At least the mild night had given us dry grass to throw everything out onto. The grey morning cloud threatened showers and since it was Sunday we decided to give the main ‘N’ road South a go. It ran parallel to the motorway down to Le Mans, So hopefully most of the traffic would be on that. It turned out to be pretty good, no cycle path as such, but quite a wide hard shoulder and the traffic was light and considerate. We made good time over the rolling hills, even with a couple of steep off n’push inclines. After fifteen miles we branched off onto quieter roads for the rest of the trip to Montbizot. We stopped for espressos in one pleasant little town with cobbled streets and pretty bridges, and then found a spot on the river bank for our lunch. Of course, as if we hadn’t had enough of ants today, Kez managed to sit right on top of a colony, so we had to pick ourselves up and move down the bank. The grey sky muted the colour of what would’ve been a wonderfully picturesque little picnic spot. With the ever present threat of rain we finished up our boiled egg baguette and peanut flavour corn puff snacks and cycled the last few miles to Montbizot.
We found the camp site completely deserted, no other tents, caravans or motorhomes, and nobody in the reception office. A small hand written note suggested (we guessed) that the campers should set up where they wanted then go and pay at the ‘Mairie’ or town hall. It seemed strange to have the entire site to ourselves because they’d been getting quite busy over the last week, and this one was well tended with lovely thick hedges bordering the pitches, and the river just a few steps away running through a pretty picnic site.
It had started showering on and off so we pitched quickly during a dry spell then went for a damp walk along the river. Lily pads with yellow flowers, a lone water rat cruising purposefully past and pretty dark winged damsel flys that hovvered and flitted around us like strange little fairies, took our minds off the rain. We’d hoped to find somewhere open in the town for groceries but a walk to the local supermarche was fruitless. So on to emergency rations of chorizo and cous cous tonight. We’ll not starve, shame I drank most of our wine reserves at lunch time though.