1 July 2025 (sunny and extremely hot) 50km

Wow...Where is this year going?

I blinked and it was July.

Awake at 4.35am. Woke Julia at 5.03am and we left at 6.02am, with the other four lots of campers, still tucked up in their beds.

The lady who had checked us in and been on all day yesterday, was halfway through cleaning the sanitary block at 5.30am, opened the gate for us so we didn't have to balance with the bikes. 

Rode into Annecy. We weren't going to stop here, but the English couple we met yesterday told us it magnificent.  That was probably an understatement.

It truly was a place we want to come back to at some stage. The fact we were there at 6.30am with virtually no traffic or pedestrians, made it a great experience. Markets were setting up and made it feel so authentic.

The old town is truly worth a look and the cycle paths are brilliant.

We are so glad we detoured in to have a look as the whole reason for getting up early is to hit the road and get some kms under our belts before it gets too hot.  But we also have to remember that the reason we're here is to see the beautiful places in Europe.

It was nice to have those scenes to reflect on as we spent the next four hours slogging up some pretty steep hills.

Looking back at Annecy.

Found lunch at the top of the hill.

This was a pleasant sight at the top of another hill.

The sweat was flowing and the lungs were burning by the time we arrived in Cruseilles to stock up for breakfast and lunch. 

As we were sitting on a seat, in the shade at the side of a road overlooking part of the town, just tucking into a very late breakfast at 11am, a guy wanders toward us, with quite an aggressive look on his face.

I'd seen him looking from down the road and thought it was odd.

He's then on the opposite side and staring intently.

Crosses the road and stands on the footpath right in front of us glaring 

I then realised what was wrong.

He was obviously the "vagrant police", looking for Hobo's.

And I couldn't very well argue with him as there was one sitting alongside me on the bench. 

In the background I could hear the music from the Good, the Bad and the Ugly playing.

He'd come to run us out of town.

Either that or it was Cruseilles "Nigel no mates" who had appeared, with a very bad impression of “Welcome to my world".

I'm sure it was my outrageous French accent that set him at ease when I said heartily " Bonjour Monsieur"

He glared for a couple of seconds longer, said “Bon Appetit” with little enthusiasm and then walked on by.

Very odd....... 

Breakfast finished, it was back to more climbing, with an intense heat and no breeze.

But we did come up on these two bridges, the old one being the pedestrian and cycling bridge.

This bridge also gave us great views over the gorge.

Our Mapy route today was distinctly meandering and we were definitely ready to get to our campground. So for the last 5km we just hit the main road and that was much more efficient but also very noisy.

It was 1pm by the time we reached Camping la Colombiere.

Waited a half hour for them to open after lunch.

Expensive....Euro 33.

Has a pool, which we immediately used.

Facilities are good.

Cold shower best part about swim as the pool was 31C. Honestly, may as well bring my rubber ducky and have a bath.

Back to tent for some food and that's when we met French Roger, who's sharing a pitch with us.

Oh yes...that Euro 33 only got us half a pitch, although she gave us a great shady spot.

Roger is walking 500kms to Arles and he's 76 years old.

Found out that he had an abusive childhood, so never married and had kids and just got on with doing the things he wanted to do, like long distance walking.

We rode about a km down to the supermarket and when I say down, we all know what that means on the way back.

Even after being off the bike and resting for a few hours, it really hit home. But the ride was worth the mini ice cream tubs which we devoured immediately on return to camp, followed by beer for me and ginger beer for Ju, with chips.

Then we had dinner. Salad for Ju and baguette, Camembert, tomato and pate for me. I think two baguettes in a day are possibly too many 

Julia was about to move her jersey round to the front of the tent where there was more breeze, (she just uses it for sitting on, hasn't used it as a jersey in weeks) and there was a baby sparrow sitting on it.

We think he may have fallen from the nest in the tree above, even though we can't see it.

The mother has come to feed it. Hope it's okay. At least we haven't seen any cats at this camp.

Chatted to our neighbour Roger, a 76 year old Frenchman who has been walking Camino trails for the last 15 years. 

Had a chat to Irena through the wonders of Messenger and then Pete went to bed at 9.45 and managed to drop right off, despite screaming kids and barking dogs!