Days 20-27

Finally the sun came out
And blimey, did it shine.
Two hot and sweaty cyclists
Had to cool down in the Rhine!

Dole to Schaffhausen - ? a lot of kms. Total so far +/- 1200kms!!

First, a little comparison on the rivers...
Our first river, La Loire, as I've mentioned, is wild and untamed - slightly furious perhaps. La (feminine) Loire could definitely be thought of as a little premenstrual and unpredictable at times.
La Saone could be her younger sister, but we only crisscrossed her for a few days -not really long enough to get to know her very well.
Le (masculine) Doubs on the other hand, is like a kind, comfortable old grandad. Sure and steady he bumbles along, big, heavy and slow. So gentle, lily pads grow along his waters edge. He generously nurtures the canal that runs parallel to him, sharing his water as they join together often,ensuring the canal is always full enough for its many locks to function. However, we have left him too, and now greeted the Rhine.

The scenery changes dramatically down this end of France. It's a lot more "Sound of Music" with hills covered in wild flowers, mountains carpeted in forests, more rural and sparsely populated.

Besancon is quite a stunning town in its architecture, with its citadel -a UNESCO world heritage site- perched precariously high above the town, but unfortunately the thunderstorms prevented us doing much more than having a tram ride and a beer.
The weather is still making things hard, but not as hard for us as the Dutch couple we met who are also biking and camping with their 3 year old son riding in a trailer for 3 months. All credit to them!

We finally enjoyed our first T-shirt day and the novelty of packing up a dry tent and taking a leisurely lunch in the shade, and after a long, gradual climb we free-wheeled down 15 or more canal locks before finding a good campsite along the canal.

We headed into Mulhouse the next morning so Steve could visit the world renowned car museum. It is home to the world's biggest collection of Bugattis, and also houses cars from their very conception from the late 19th century, throughout the last century, including road-going vehicles and racing vehicles.

The weather got ridiculously hot as we crossed the Rhine into Switzerland, or was it Germany? The border between these two countries is very confusing, and we continued crisscrossing between these two countries for most of the day.

The Swiss part from Basel was slightly disappointing, traversing through chemical factories, recycling centres, quarries, industries, agriculture and a nuclear power plant!

But the forested parts were lovely, and we found a great spot on the Rhine to camp, and bathe in the icy water to cool off our overheated and sun crisped skin!

We are now in Schaffhausen, Switzerland, home of the Rhinefall, Europe's largest waterfall. Did you know that the eel is the only fish that can overcome the obstacle of the falls when swimming upstream? No, I didn't either!

We are in a very nice (but expensive, as everything is in Switzerland) campsite and have had a much needed rest day. Of course it turned cold and rained all day, but Schaffhausen and its beautiful buildings kept us amused all day.

And an even greater surprise was meeting up with our friend Dave, who managed to arrange his business trip around our route so he could come and visit us, and restock our energy levels with good food, drink and chatter. Cheers Dave!

Days 13-19

When you drink your pasteurized milk
Semi-skimmed or whole,
Remember Louis Pasteur
Cause he was born in Dole.

Sancerre to Dole - 372kms

Well, what a week it's been, and this is the first chance to update you.

They call La Loire Europe's last untamed river, and in the eastern section you can see why. She's wide and strong, depositing sand where she pleases creating islands, then sweeping them away at her will. She is unforgiving in her path, and swimming is strictly forbidden due to strong currents.

We were amazed to see our second canal bridge - almost as spectacular as the first although nothing was made of this one at all.

However, we soon lost count of the number we crossed, and now we barely raise an eyebrow - oh how familiarity breeds contempt!

I won't go into detail of the first 3 long, hard, cold days in the saddle, but just know that a lot of detouring took place looking for shops that were closed and campsites that didn't exist. Very short lunch breaks were taken to avoid fingers freezing onto camembert as the icy wind blew head-on.

We said au revoir to La Loire, and followed the Canal Lateral de La Loire for 3 days. One whole day climbing with the locks, and one day downhill all the way.

It is wide and meandering and full of large, interesting barges; some holidaying, some homes and some businesses.

The eurovelo 6 trail can be sketchy at times, especially with distances; sometimes halving or even doubling what the signs say, so we've taken a mixture of long, straight, endless roads, canal paths and the trail.
The weather continues to be horribly unsettled, so has also had a bearing on whether we take the shortest route or the scenic one.

After a freezing night under a canal bridge the skies cleared and the sun came out.

The wind was behind us for a change and we decided to make the most of it as the next day was forecast rain again. It was our fourth long day, but as we crossed La Soane river, our sweaty, pounding hearts leapt at the thought of a campsite, finally, a hot shower and a cold beer.
Our sweaty, pounding hearts didn't imagine the campsite hadn't opened for the season yet!
We holed up under a huge weeping willow, sad in the knowledge that tomorrow wasn't going to be the pleasant rest day we had planned.

We managed to stay fairly dry for most of the 30kms to Seurre, and the next campsite, but had to shelter for 2 hours in a cafe until the rain eased enough to venture to the campsite.

Again today we arrived in Dole, just as the rain started.

It's not been all bad though, we've been luck enough to see beavers in the canal, and black bass, and have experienced 2 incredible acts of kindness that lifted our spirits:

1) Whilst having lunch one day a man came up to us carrying a box. It was a strawberry tart he'd bought that morning. He patted his tummy, said we looked like we needed the calories more than he did, and selflessly handed over his scrumptious cake. OMG it was DELICIOUS!

2) After walking half an hour from a campsite to the supermarket in heavy drizzle, we finished shopping and looked with dread at the now torrential rain. A woman approached us, babbling in French something about a boat. When we told her we we're camping she ushered us into her husband's car and they promptly drove us all the way back to the campsite. Neither party understood the other, but we parted like old friends!