Bonjour! A storm during the night had made things very wet this morning. The ladies survived in the tent, especially B as she slept right through! It was a cloudy morning but it was supposed to get sunnier as the day went on. Unfortunately, B couldn’t join us for our ride. She’s going to explain later with some guest blog paragraphs.

Our destination was Charleville-Mezieres. The route was straightforward again. We had to follow the Green Way route the whole way. Check out VIDEO 1 for our pre-match huddle.

Dad started off at his usual explosive pace. I was struggling to keep up with him as he powered along the flat track. My left calf started to hurt so I slowed down a little. I needed to take care of it because it’s got a lot of riding left to do! This seemed to work and I started to feel better after half way.  Check out VIDEO 2 to listen to Dad waffle on about bridges.. and to catch a glimpse of the Green Way!

The route followed the river so we didn’t have to deal with any hills. However, we did have a strong headwind that caused us problems when the valley floor opened up. We passed through some more pretty towns (see VIDEO 3) and ended up in Charleville after 2 hours of riding. We had cycled 44km so I was feeling quite tired. Check out VIDEO 4 for the final few kms to the campsite…quality off-road stuff! The calf is still tight but hopefully a massage will help. I need to grovel to Mum or B to help me! Brandi arrives from Korea tomorrow so I’m feeling excited to see her! There will be 5 of us on the road. Woop woop!

Bridget’s Bonus  Blog!

Hello everyone 🙂 Seeing as I have been travelling with the BtR crew for the last few days I wanted to share my experiences of being on the road, following Phil and co on their adventure. Mum and I have been sleeping in a tent which hasn’t been too bad actually, mostly due to my apparent ability to sleep anywhere and through anything, including firecrackers, groups of people talking, thunder, lightening, rain etc.

I was lucky enough to join Phil and dad for a day’s cycling yesterday; travelling from Givet to Riven in Northern France. The cycle path was along the Meurs river and through the Ardennes forest which was very beautiful and well maintained. I am rarely seen near a bike but managed to stay on the whole way (an achievement). I certainly took the average pace down a fair few notches as Phil’s training and dad’s lifelong commitment to cycling really showed, especially while I struggled pathetically along the last 5 miles or so. Hats off to them and particularly Phil for completing well over 500 miles from Bath so far!

I had been hoping to cycle a 2nd day to finish the Ardennes cycle path, but unfortunately there was a spanner thrown into dad’s rather ambitious bike plan. We had been hoping to return the bike to our man in Givet by train, but our suspicions were aroused when we were cycling on the first day alongside a nearby train track. We saw idling groups of men in worker gear, not actually doing much but taking over the whole track with various serious looking machinery. True to expectation, the trains were not running so Plan B was enacted which involved Ruthie and I dropping off the bike via the ‘Camping Car’ to Givet.

Looking forward to more adventures over the next week that I am here….