We checked out at the last possible moment at 10:58, to be sure that we got our moneys worth of rest and recuperation and set off out along the tow path again.
There are many locks on this section and we soon found that we were climbing upwards alongside them. It was at least nice to realise that it wasn’t just that our legs felt tired - we were gradually heading uphill, which is noticeable with a laden bike. Most locks had a house and lock keeper, who was usually busy opening and closing the gates. In between boat arrivals, they were all obviously keen gardeners and we graded them out of ten for their efforts. Some were spectacular. By good fortune, when we eventually decided that we needed a rest, we did so under the shade of a tree at a 10/10 scoring lock. But the good fortune only became apparent when we set off - we had unwittingly reached the top of the locks and the next few kilometres were a gradual downhill!
The next big town we came across was Pontivy. It was a colourful town square, but quite busy, so we didn’t hang around.
Instead we found a funky little cafe on the edge of town, where we could rest a while. The owner had done some a cycle touring too, so insisted on filling our water bottles with cold water before we left.
We left town past another impressive Chateau.
And then rejoined the canal as the skies began to darken.
It was a tiring and slightly tense last 10km. All around us we could see the rain falling in heavy sheets. Up ahead the thunder clapped, but we remained just on the edge of it all and incredibly, stayed dry.
The lake we are camped by has been created by a dam, which now makes it impossible to navigate all the way through from Nantes to Brest. It’s a 200m high dam wall and as we approached, the realisation that if our camp site was by the lake, we must have a 200m climb ahead of us dawned. Down in first gear, with only a kilometre to go, we slowly wound our way up the switchbacks, just concentrating on turning the peddles. We arrived at the campsite utterly spent! Within half an hour the tent was up and we were eating dinner, under a covered table in case the heavens opened. The sun set and it remained dry. Incredibly, there is a kids camp going on here with 100s of kids in tent village next to the campsite. Bizarre, given all the Covid measures we’ve experienced so far. It feels like the riskiest place we’ve been, but we were tired enough to want to go straight to bed anyway. Music played full blast until after 11pm and I was thankful for my deaf ear...
Total Ride: 72km
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