24 June 2025 (sunny and extremely hot) 68km

After a good night's sleep, I woke at 5.52am to a tent splattered with bird droppings. To make matters worse, the birds are eating berries at this time, so it is a dark blue/purple colour. Out of four tents, we were the only one affected. 

Then I thought back to my comment about "roasting God". Was it just coincidence that my side of the tent was the one that was repeatedly shat upon?  Maybe this is retribution?  He gathered some of his winged creatures and said unto them, "I would like you to shit all over this particular tent in France. Don't hold back on the amount you let go."  What happened to turn the other cheek? Grabbed a mop and bucket and we scrubbed the fly clean, packed the bikes and were ready to go. 

Said goodbye to Rachael who is taking a train ride into the mountains today from 10.15am - 5pm. Then she's off to bike in the Pyrenees.  Boy, was she carrying huge weight in her panniers. We estimate she would have been carrying 25kg more than us. She had a sort out this morning and culled about 10kg of gear that she's going to ship back to a friend in Paris.

Off on the via Rhona river cycle track. It was very pleasant riverside riding to start with and then combined with small country roads, as we wound our way towards the Alps. We passed a lot of fruit trees but only the apricots seemed to be ripe. There were nectarines and figs and a lot of corn fields as well as sunflowers and lavender. 

At 9.30am, we called into Chateau neuf sur Isere for supplies, but it wasn't until we cycled into Romans sur Isere that we found a shady spot with a picnic table and a rubbish bin and enjoyed our breakfast. And enjoy it we did after 33km of riding. At 10.30am we left the sanctuary of the shade, sunscreened up and set off to take yet another beating on a day that is forecast to reach 33C. 

The afternoons riding was very similar to the morning except we were moving closer to the mountains.

In the hot afternoons, we are now seeking out the irrigation systems and lingering under them!

Just before 3pm we came to our campsite.  It was 22 Euro and if you wanted wifi, you had to pay an extra 5. No wifi for us then.  A warm water lake to swim in. There is a solitary cold shower there, but you can't wash yourself as it's outside the cafe/restaurant, which is open til 10pm.  The camp showers are hot only.  The washrooms are certainly not cleaned properly, with the laundry tub looking as though it hasn't been cleaned for years.  Not good value for money at all, but no other options.  Dumped our gear, kept our personal bags and swam.

Best part was finishing and using the cold shower outside the restaurant. I went over to the 'sanitaires' and had a shave and then we washed some clothes.  While our power bank was charging in the men's, we sat and blogged or mapped our next route.  By then it was 5.30pm and too hot to think.

At 6.15pm I watched a young guy with long blonde hair, spend ten minutes, so far, walking around three trees in little circles..wtf?!#*  As you can no doubt tell, there's not a lot going on in this camp.

Once we were satisfied the sun wasn't going to get us, we put the tent up in a shady spot and then took our food and cooking gear to a shady picnic table by the warm lake.  It was so impossibly hot, we really did not feel like cooking our pasta, but it was all we had. Mixed it with mackerel in mustard sauce, tomato and avocado. Ate because it was dinner time, not because we were hungry. 

Ju here, we've developed a few tricks to beat the heat. Number one is usually stopping for the day at lunchtime, but we had a bit further to go today. We'll try and pick a campground with a pool, but usually they're too warm anyway. So when we come across a camp where you have the option of controlling the heat of the water in your shower, we're ecstatic, as it's cold water all the way. We have been known to have four cold showers in one afternoon. 

This camp does not have cold showers in the sanitary block. So we go into the disabled shower with our water bottles which we fill from the sink and douse ourselves repeatedly with one bottle of cold water after another.  So after dinner, I had my third one of the afternoon and then coated myself in bug spray in an effort to avoid adding to the ten mosquito bites I already have.  Oh yes, all the joys of camping!  We blogged in the tent and then both had a nap, only to wake up about 9pm and ready ourselves for further sleeping overnight.