I didn’t sleep too well on the crossing, but I’m sure it was much better than if I hadn’t booked a cabin. All the bikes were in one little room and loading took a while but eventually I got everything back on the bike, through passport control and out onto the wrong side of the road. I took a nice diversion through the deserted cobbled streets of walled city of St Malo. It was was very pleasant. I then waited for the first ferry of the day (9:30 on a Sunday!) to Dinard, this avoids riding across the narrow tidal barrage. There were a few familiar faces from the overnight ferry joining in the wait. It was a short 10 minute crossing, but getting off was a real faff, first off the moving ferry, with the man shouting at you as the gangplank skated up and down the slipway, and then up a steep flight of stairs. The other cyclists unpacked the panniers, but it was quicker to lug the whole thing up one flight in one piece.

My mapping took me to the Greenway (Voie Verte) which wasn’t signposted particularly well, or very obvious, being down a pallet staircase onto some waste ground. But once it started it was excellent – a disused railway line with a gravel top. Not too much to see, but the small modern housing estate with sheep as the centre piece was excellent stopping point.

I made it to Dinan for lunch. Its very impressive with an ancient port on the river and a big climb up to the town itself. Looks a very historical place, but climbing up on the cobbled streets left me searching for food.

From Dinan, I shunned the cycle route to get some faster miles in as it was becoming more tortuous. The D766, was just the ticket – on the face of it a very fast road, but with plenty of hard shoulder, no traffic and the odd bit of duel carriageway on the hills.

It was getting to be a struggle, I think mainly due to the lack of food. I hadn’t come prepared for all the shops to be shut on a Sunday. I’d cycled over sixty miles on a croissant, a snickers, a Salami roll and a piece of Flan – which was a tall order! I had some basic provisions (pasta, pesto, porridge, banana chips and honey) but I really needed a shop to turn them into a reasonable meal.

At Mauron the Voie Verte started again – and was fully paved – which was nice! It gave me a good run to Loyat where I deviated off to a (really nice) campsite at Vallee du Ninian. At the campsite shop local bottled beer was available but no salad, so it was Brie and chocolate puddings to accompany my beer and pasta.

I’ll rave about my new tent in a later blog – after I’ve slept a night in it.