Today's ride really broke into two sections. Firstly, we followed the Vézère River up to Montignac - mostly along the river banks, then we turned around and headed for Salat-la-Canéda - mostly hilly, country riding.
We stopped at La Rogue St Christophe a series of terraces that have been occupied as a natural fortress for almost 50 millennia. That's a long time! We also decided to have lunch here before we headed off on the rest of the day's journey. We saw another couple - Danish I think on a very heavy tandem towing a very heavily laden trailer. Made us seem like lightweights. :)
Chateau de Losse is situated right on the banks of the Vézère and when we got there kids were canoeing right below the chateau.
Turning at the pretty village of Montignac - which seemed to be dressed up for a festival, we darted the climbing and descending. Beautiful riding, though it was strenuous at times. We stopped for a coffee recharge at a hotel at La Chapelle-Aubareil. The owner's daughter is in Australia and so he had quite a bit of Australian memorabilia in the bar. He was pretty pleased. Just after this, the heavens opened. Maybe 10 mins more and we would have outrun it as we were just coming to a 10km downhill section.
Things were going ok until Elizabeth spotted a 10km to Les Eyzies sign. Yes we had come the long way - it's about the journey, not the destination. Riding along we saw many of the sncient stone sheperd's huts this area is known for. At one stage we stopped for a rest and noticed we were under a walnut tree - so we ate walnuts.
By the time we got to Sarlat we were wet, tired and starving. Took a little to find a hotel but when we did we showered and headed in search of food. It did not matter that it was 'too early'. There were sure to be some English people eating early :)
We had been having problems with the plastic bars end caps on Elizabeth's stoker bars falling out. We found a solution, French champagne corks
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