Boondock Puffins

Torrential rain and thunderstorms over night were not felt too badly from the tent, but waking up int he morning we discovered that we’d forgotten to bring in our towels so they were sodden. Otherwise though, the trusty LoneRider tent and everything else held up super well in their first test – thankfully, as there’s not much we could do now anyway!

We had a leisurely start and went for a run along the beach. We kept an eye out for Hazel’s sunglasses that she lost in the sea yesterday but we sadly had no luck. There were a lot of birds out in the surf and running up and down the beach on their tiny cartoon-like legs.

Once back at camp, we all settled in for coffee with condensed milk before facing the task of trying to dry everything out! We always knew that this would be a difficulty in packing up our bike stuff, but with the dry bags and different compartments, we just about made things work without getting everything too damp that had remained dry.

With the things like our towels, swimming costumes and running kit that was already wet, we had no real luck in trying to dry them. Looking ahead at today’s weather, it looks like we are likely to face a lot of different rains over the course of the day.

Having packed up (a very complex task for all of us trying to Tetris belongings and camping kit into the space we have), we were unwilling and emotional to say goodbye to Tom’s family – we won’t really see them except for a night or two in November and then the 3 weeks we have with them in December in Australia before they go back to the UK and we stay on the other side of the world. The curse of actually loving your family seems to be that you end up torn between wanting to go off on adventures/living the life you aspire to, but also wanting to spend as much time with family as possible.

As the rest of the family headed back east up towards Calais, we turned south, heading down the coast on a manageable ride.

We were originally aiming for a campsite just south of Vannes but when we rang they were “complet” so we headed onwards to a much smaller one in the middle of nowhere which has turned out to be a beautiful, quiet, nature filled site with absolutely everything we look for in a camp (with the exception of laundry facilities, but to be honest I haven’t really looked so they might be available somewhere!). There’s a field of goats, the ablution block is down a track into the woods, there’s no real road into the campsite, just a wonderfully small track, and there’s a shed in case it tips down and you (like us) have no real shelter.

Honestly, this was a perfect site, made even better by the most friendly owner. We will absolutely be back – the sea is only 10 minutes away but this feels a world away from the “4-star” sites that have swimming pools, entire restaurants and all the other bells and whistles.

We jumped on the bike for a quick trip to the local supermarché to grab the essentials (snacks, meat, veg) – in the rain of course, because we’ve not had a huge amount of luck with the weather just yet!

We settled in for a hearty supper of veg and chicken, and for pudding Tom voluntarily ate a peach! Clearly the freedom of camping is having a positive impact on our healthy choices.

Favourite quote from today? John: “if you want to go to the beach today, don’t worry about walking down there, just come into our tent, all the sand’s in there!”