Sunshine! After a cooked breakfast, we set off back to the canal a short distance away, and though it was sunny, the wind was quite cold. We'd only ridden a couple of hundred metres before we encountered an obstacle - a tree had fallen across the path, too large for us to move so we found a way around it.
The riding was easy, a bit muddy in patches because of recent rains but manageable and the scenery was gorgeous.
Lock 146 is the only double lock along the canal and it was restored in 1998
and a little further along is the pretty chapel of Notre-Dame de la pitie.
At lock 149 there is a bread oven,
lock keepers often had a side-line to supplement their income and passing boatmen would have been able to buy fresh bread baked in this oven beside the towpath.
Not a lot further ahead a big black cloud was looming and as we had only a few kilometres to go, we tried to outrun it but to no avail. We were very quickly wet through and sought some little shelter in a doorway of an old lock keeper's cottage. Once it eased we pushed on and at the next bridge, Pont-ar-Len, we spotted a 'Petit Break'....a cafe which was actually open so we stopped, ordered coffee, a burger and a pannini, and as the rain had started up again, another coffee and a long wait.
When the rain finally stopped and the sun came out, we took off again, across the bridge to our accommodation. As the sun was shining, we spread all our wet stuff over the outdoor table and chairs, boiled the jug for coffee and sat relaxing and waiting for everything to dry so we could ride into Glomel town for a meal. Alas, the sun disappeared and the rain returned so we quickly grabbed our gear which had been drying nicely and confined ourselves to the indoors, playing UNO and gathering what food we had to make a snack meal....there was no way we were going out again in the rain!
No comments:
Post a Comment