A Streak of Bad Luck Tue 23/07/02   To make it short today was certainly NOT my day! Got going reasonably early at around 10:30 after not having slept too well, which to some degree was certainly due to the huge amount of food still sitting in my stomach. Started off with a longer than expected ascent of 450m and had a flat rear tire close to the top. Since I had not gotten a spare innertube proceeded to fixing the tire. This exercise delayed my plans to stay at Lac du Salagu and shortened my time at the side of the lake, which I reached at 15:30 near the of town Octon, where the lake is very narrow. (Aside: The lake is manmade with the water being used for agriculture and irrigation) Swam across the lake and back, scraping my foot on the ground after having reached the other side, also got bitten by some nasty water parasite (at the back of my knee). Continued with my pursuit to reach Sumene but whilst making great progress with some heavy tailwind I had another flat tire, this time in two places and still no new innertube. (Which I actually thought about getting at a bike shop in Bedarieux but didn't due to the opening times). Now being stuck with two flat tires in one day, no spare innertube and no more patches for fixing the extra holes in the remaining tube, I was in a bit of a bad spot. I had already chained my panniers to a bridge close to where I had had the flat, and was trying to hitch a ride when a woman stopped and offered to fetch an innertube for me. In the end she turned around and went to get her 4x4 into which we put the bike and drove into Cleremont l'Herault. Whilst driving there she explained to me that leaving the bike at the spot where I had planned to would have surely resulted in theft ...) So thanks to this incredibly nice woman I now still own my bike, got two new innertubes at a small bike shop in Cleremont and was able to continue in the direction of Sumene, about 60km away. By the time I started riding again it was 19:20, so finally I had to give up on the idea of reaching Sumene about an hour later when I reached the Gorges d'Herault at the Pont du Diable, where is was greeted by a ferocious headwind of at least 40km/h. With this obstacle combined with a 300m climb en route to Sumene, I decided to look for a place to camp close by in St. Jean de Fos. Had no luck there as there aren't any campgrounds in St. Jean de Fos. The only possible solution was to ride towards Aniane, where I finally found a Campsite on the road to Gignac about 2km outside of Aniane. After having eventually found a place to camp, I quickly set up my tent next to a French guy who was fighting to get his ultralite ultrasmall tent set up, and prepared my last self cooked dinner. I had now ran out of of pretty much everything, namely wine, spaghetti, cheese, pesto, tuna etc and would be travelling as light as never before during these 2.5 weeks. Yahoo. Had some beers at "the bar", which really was a small trailer right behind my tent, and got kicked out at 22:30 whilst writing up the events of the day. Hence had an early night and got going early the next day - in the hope of getting close to Orange. If I were to succeed that would probably be the longest stretch I on this trip. Lessons Learned   - The old style french toilets rule for efficiency and maintainability, a real miracle. - Never delay buying spare parts for the bike as chances that the unlikely combinations of faults occurs are higher than you think. - Suggestions and Ideas on "How to get spare parts for your bike":   1. find a very nice local person who will take you and your bike to the next bike shop   2. find a local kid on a motorbike and pay him/her to get you the spare part (give the broken part to him/her for reference)   3. lock the bike and panniers with every lock and chain you have to a fixed object and hitch(hike) to the next town, find the store and hike back (hopefully your stuff will still be there = good luck)	1304m 99.4km / Avg: 20.2km/h Camping le Moulain de Sair Aniane 7 EUR - Ph: 04 66 57 51 08 GPS: N43 40.070 E03 33.983
Camping Moulain de Sair
Le Tour Wed 24/07/2002   Started early as I knew I would have a long day ahead of me and managed to get going at 9:40. Cycled back towards the entrance of the Gorges d'Herault at St. Jean de Fos, where the nasty and strong headwind from the evening before had calmed down slightly. Was very enjoyable riding along the Herault, stopping after only 45min at St Guilhem le Desert, which turned out to be a medieval town tucked into the side of the mountain. Very interesting, authentic and pretty, (even the drainage systems were made of ceramics in some places). Visited the church which was build in the 12th century (The church seen on the photograph is slightly more recent, having been built on top the foundations of the old church) Walked around the small alleyways and took several photographs before sitting down in the middle of the town square outside of the church to enjoy a freshly made waffle with sugar. Refilled my water bottle about 3times in various locations where taps emerged from walls and houses marked as "eau potable" and carrying little shell ornaments, which i assume were signs for the pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela that the water was safe to drink. Finally managed to move on and up the Herault valley, crossing the Herault near the church St. Etienne d'Issenac and was tempted to dive in, but this would have required time in preparation which I did not have with lots of km ahead of me. Passed St. Bauzille where I had a totally overpriced salad for lunch in the centre of town, which I attributed to the proximity to the Grottes des Demoiselles - apparently a huge tourist attraction. Followed some minor (yellow) roads to Ales which I reached at around 4pm, en route finding a rather nice looking hotel and restaurant which I am sure my mother would appreciate, so stopped to pick up a card (Hotel Restaurant les Demeures Du Ranouet in Tournac near Anduze - later turned out my mother had already been there), at which time I was pretty tired so decided to have a short stop. Looked at the church in St. Jean and visited the tourist information quickly to find a cybercafe in this otherwise rather unsightly and uninteresting town. In the third attempt after some looking and asking managed to find a cafe which would let me use my computer and quickly uploaded some more pictures. Continued riding at almost 18:00 I vowed to ride longer than 8pm, hoping I may yet get close to Barjac, my original target for the day. Tried to get out of Ales quickly going towards Salindres, an easy undertaking as I was being helped along by a healthy tailwind. After having passed Salindres the road got less crowded and the countryside became prettier, with large fields of sunflowers and old towns with medieval centers lining the way towards Barjac, one of which being St. Jean de Maruejols which had an interestingly coloured administrative building in the town centre. Once I reached Barjac decided not to cycle into the town centre but continue to Vagnas and take the first camp site I would find there. This turned out to be the three star "La Ruviere Les Pins" which charged an amazing 16,30 for me and my tent, apparently forfait (the flat-rate) also translates into serious crime in French. This would definitely be an occasion where this play on words applies to the solo cyclist. After I had gotten over the price shock, the camping turned out to be very nice and comfortable, except that it was pretty much a Dutch enclave in France, where even the bartender and the pizza restaurant on site were fluent in Dutch and French. My Salewa backpack / pillow broke that day after not even 2 months of use, with one of the metal rods poking out through the nylon. (will have to fix that once back, together with the rip in the tent and the hole in the Ortlieb map-bag) Lessons Learned   - Camping sites near the Gorges d'Ardeche seem to be a right ripoff for cyclists. (Forfait!)	1715m 128km / Avg: 19.6km/h Camping La Ruviere Les Pins Vagnas 16.30 EUR !!! - Ph: - GPS: N44 20.503 E04 20.861
St. Guilhem le Desert St. Guilhem le Desert - Church St. Guilhem le Desert St. Guilhem le Desert - Alleys St. Guilhem le Desert - Church Interior St. Guilhem le Desert - Potable Water Fountain Centre St. Jean de Maurejols Chateaux pres de St. Jean Camping La Rouviere les Bins
Gorges d'Ardeche Thu 25/07/02   As I was going to catch the train in Pierrelatte at 13:20 and wanted some spare time in case of flat tires etc I started cycling very early, setting a new record time of 9:20!! (subconsciously I probably also wanted to forget about the EUR 16 rate I had just paid) I cycled towards St. Vallon Pont d'Arc at the entrance to the Gorges d'Ardeche, which was a leisurely downhill ride along a road literally lined with campsites and canoe rental places. The whole area was overflowing with tourists, French and foreign, driving up the road along the Gorges d'Ardeche (by car bike, motorbike etc etc) or riding down the Ardeche in canoes. My legs somehow were still not in as good a shape as I would have expected and the 300m climb up the road really hurt, not only my legs but also my ego as I was overtaken by another cyclist who also was carrying panniers... As I was going along the rim of the canyon formed by the Ardeche river, took some pictures of the quite spectacular views offered of the shapes and colours in the rock lining the river. Branched off towards le Bidon and eventually descended into Pierrelatte where I bought the train ticket to Strasbourg (EUR 49) and with about 1:20 minutes to spare decided to cycle out to the "Ferme des Crocodiles" which turned out to be pretty big tourist attraction, conveniently located right next to the nuclear reactor. ( I actually thought they were using the warm and clean waste-cooling water from the cooling towers for the crocodiles, maybe they just used the cheap electricity to heating the huge greenhouses there). Anyhow the place was also packed with tourists and I could hardly move around since I was carrying a backpack and one pannier. After a few minutes of looking around, I made up my mind to split and get some groceries before catching the train to Lyon (Part-Dieu)and on to Strasbourg. On the train I was sitting in the bicycle compartment where a guy whom I would later get to know as Nicolas was showing a small kid some magic tricks, which were actually quite cool! One station later a young Swiss woman joined us, at which time I was very busy trying to mop up my backpack into which I had spilled the rest of my lunch. The French train-toilets however were ideally equipped to clean and dry the inside of the pack. Nicolas was busy talking to Mylene (the Swiss woman) in French which again made me aware of how poor my french really was, as I could hardly understand a thing they were saying. Anyhow, at the end of the trip we had gotten to know each other a little bit and since we all had about 1,5h to spare in Lyon decided to go and have a look round together and to get a drink. Found a nice cafe at the foot of the hill leading up to the cathedral, which I again only saw from the outside during this visit, but I'm sure I'll be back in Lyon for a more thorough inspection later. On the way back Nicolas had been carrying Mylene on the back of his bike when a spoke broke, pretty much trashing his rear wheel. Hence he ended up jogging back to the station pushing his bike, and luckily made it as the train had been delayed by 10 minutes. Used the "Cycling France" to pick the Ciarus Hostel in Strasbourg, listed as "the best deal in town" and managed to get a bed there! Shortly after arriving at the station at 22:30 got a map of the city centre and was on my way to the Ciarus hostel, where I checked in some minutes later and after a shower headed out to explore the town by night. In short, I was very impressed and need to come back here with some more people to thoroughly explore the vibrant bars and nightlife.	750m 60.9km / Avg: 19.3km/h Ciarus Hostel 7 rue Finkenmatt - Strasbourg 38 EUR - Ph: 03 88 15 27 88 GPS: N48 35.430 E07 44.507
Gorge d'Ardeche Gorge d'Ardeche Nicolas Magicien - Tren Hostel Ciarus
Strasbourg to Nuremberg Fri 26/07/02   Got out bed at the regular hour - 7:30 and started packing up my stuff, which I interrupted briefly to get a very decent hostel breakfast and finished packing at nine. Leaving my luggage in the hostel I set out on foot to take a good look around the city on foot during the day. Walked around for most part of the morning, looking at some of the churches and the cathedral in the town centre. The latter, being one of the most important monuments dating back from the Middle Ages (11-15) and with its 140m high spire, it had been the highest in Western Europe until it was overtaken in the 19th century. Construction of the cathedral had begun at the end of the 12th century was not completed until 1439. Whilst looking up the sheer hight of the ceiling is amazing and the colourful stained glass windows are incredible masterpieces of craftsmanship and art. Continued my walking tour through the "Petite France", formerly the quater of tanners, millers and fishers. Now the old timbered buildings from the 16th and 17th century house many restaurants, theatres and tourist shops. Slowly made my way back to the hostel where I picked up my bike and bags and rode off to the train station to complete my journey home to Nuremberg, which I was going to reach at around 18:00 o'clock, after a roughly 5 hour train ride. ciao.	no map 0m 0km / Avg: 0km/h
Church Strasbourg Cathedral Strasbourg Cathedral Strasbourg La Petite France