80 miles ridden today, but I cut off a 22 mile loop by riding up the main roads, so that's a little bit closer. Don't really want to do that again though, it wasn't fun. I left Mimizan about 8am again and headed off on my "short cut" in the pouring rain again. The roads were quite busy, but it was OK when there was a bike path, not so OK when there wasn't. I rode past a French air force base at one point and they seemed to be intent on making as much noise with their jets as possible, circling round and round.
The rain became more showery in nature by midday and just as I was entering Gujan-Mestras the heavens opened but fortunately I was able to take cover. Further on in Biganos I wasn't so lucky and it took a while to find a bus shelter to take cover. At one point it started hailing and while my cape is pretty good, it was a bit painful.
At Biganos I reverted to the EuroVelo route, which started off on a disused railway again so was pretty flat.
I had to take shelter in a converted station with some French guys, who's game of Pétanque had been interrupted by the shower.
Eventually at Cap Ferret the path turned north through the forest again and the showers were less frequent, but the wind was blowing at about 30 mph. Mostly it was a crosswind, but at times the path veered straight in to it and I almost came to a complete halt.
All the time I knew the coast wasn't far to the left of me, but I couldn't see it because of the forest and the dunes. Eventually I arrived in Lacanau Océan and decided to stop. There's not a huge number of places on this coast to stay, but this is obviously a bit of a surfer's paradise. Not today though, far too rough!
I met a lovely couple from the Netherlands, and after explaining what a fantastic job that Amicii Dog Rescue and Rehabilitation UK and Amicii Dog Rescue Romania do, they made a random donation, thank you so much.
Hopefully tomorrow won't be as wet, although I think the forest is still windy.
Thanks for everybody's kind words of encouragement, they go a long way to keep me going. There have been times these last couple of days where I've been close to throwing in the towel.
#abitofabikeride
https://justgiving.com/campaign/a-bit-of-a-bike-ride
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