Day 5 - Tasty Terrain

Spoiler alert: today was incredible. If you’re into that sort of thing.

Safe to say the restaurant last night didn’t disappoint. Huge ham salad, which Mrs Gough would be proud of, grilled pork and tarte tatin, washed down with some local (ish) red. I sat outside the restaurant for the best part of 2 hours, demolishing food and working out my route tomorrow, given that I’d already ridden 15km of it. Eventually I was the only person left so, politely but firmly, they gave me the bill and told me to sling my hook. 

Following a complicated weather forecast versus leg fatigue calculation I opted for a relatively modest 114km route albeit with plenty of undulation. If I’ve planned this right, I’ll miss the thunder. It’s all on you BBC weather website, no pressure. 

And of course BBC weather was entirely incorrect. A whopper of a thunderstorm came through around 2am and it rained constantly thereafter. The elderly Dutch lady camping in the pitch next to mine explained this morning that according to her App there were 3 separate storms within 1km. I can quite believe it. Inexplicably, I responded “I was so frightened I nearly climbed in your tent with you”. Since neither of us knew how best to respond to that one I decided to busy myself making a coffee and packing up the bike.

It was around 9:30 by this time and the sky was blue in parts but the ground was saturated. We’d had a lot of rain. 

I assessed the damage; most things had remained dry but my bike kit had not. My front panniers which had remained on the bike all night were comprehensively wet inside. Not too bad though, considering. I donned my cold wet cycling gear, tied everything which was wet to various parts of my bike and eventually set off around 10:30. Just as well I only had a relatively short day. 

Retracing my steps to the route and stopping to admire the meteorite-stone chateau, I set off in the direction of Brantome - a lovely village which Sits as an island in the river Dronne. The route was straightforward- follow the D675 for 62km. The D675 had been recently resurfaced and was a delight to ride on. Perhaps Le Tour is coming this way in July, either that or the local departmente had a load of tarmac to use up. 

The climbs had become notably longer. Despatching a couple of Cat 4’s I soon advanced onto my first cat 3 of the trip, 3km at 5%. The descents had become equally long and I enjoyed a few long sweeping drops as the Dordogne gently whizzed by, still on velvet smooth black stuff.

Having stopped only for water and haribo in a Casino en route (Casino isn’t a patch on the Super U but beggars can’t be choosers) I made good time albeit against a stiff headwind and reached Brantome just after 1pm. I found a lovely looking but busy restaurant on the banks of the Dronne, alas they had no tables free outside so they put me on a single table on my own in the porch.

The view was still fine through the glazed front and the food was superb (omelette and potatoes with salad). 

By now the sun had dominated the sky with only a few clouds it looked as though I may have escaped the rain. The temperature was apparently at 28 degrees so I explored the village and set off on the 52km to Hautefort.

That 52km took me through stunning scenery, up and down Cat 3 and 4 climbs (Garmin scale), through dense forests which provided much welcome shade from the hot sun. Everywhere I looked was incredible in this sparsely populated but beautiful pocket of the Dordogne.

The only slight mishap was coming across a closed road at a level crossing. There happened to be an English cyclist who was quite happy to break through the fence and cross anyway. “In Derbyshire we just ignore these” he suggested, with not much confidence. As we collectively considered the best way to destroy a perfectly functional fence a train came hurtling past. I offered my farewells and legged it. It looked like a potentially significant diversion was in order but just down the road I spotted a gravel track and followed it along and then safely over the railway, to rejoin the route.

From that point it was plain sailing; the road continued up and down, the road surface continued to be fantastic and I had a big smile on my face. Coming into my stage end Hautefort I spotted a sign for the campsite, climbed up through the forest and checked in. It was only 5pm so plenty of sun left in the day to repair last nights damage.