In all cycle tours you have these days. After over two weeks of hot weather and close to no rain, the time had come for the weather gods to dish it out.

We knew it was coming. We had looked at the weather rain radar multiple times hoping that the awful weather crossing France from the Atlantic Ocean had either miraculously disappeared or changed course.

Around 2 am we listened to the huge thunderstorms, lightening and thunder.

When we awoke, it was overcast but not raining. We’d take that.

After bidding our host farewell (another English family that have settled in France, formerly from the Isle of Wight) we set off.

Within 4 km the raincoats went on. So the day would continue with constant stops taking gilet off, coat on, coat off, gilet on and so on.

We had a day of climbing. Our Hammerhead Karoo (bike computer) had 24 rated climbs, plus there were other lesser climbs.

This is our climbing graph for 140 km. Over 1800 metres climbing with that distance, with loaded bikes is a big effort. We have similar tomorrow. Not because we want to do such distances with lots of climbing but more out of necessity.

We are heading east and you have to ride to towns that have decent accomodation plus somewhere to eat. Such towns are less plentiful compared to say the tourist hot spots in the Loire Valley. We carry only snacks with us (replenishing those at supermaches).

That means you sometimes have tougher days.

The camera did not come out as often today. It comes out when it is not raining. Here are photos that we did take en route. The photos are in order from the start.

We arrived in Montlucon by a nice descent down a major arterial road, bit of city shuffling, arriving at the river Cher. Locating our accomodation, we showered, washed our clothes and headed into the old city quarters.

A few more views before we headed back so I could write this blog and sleep.

That’s it for today. Tomorrow is not dissimilar to today. Climbing and length. We are hopeful the weather will hold out for us.

Thanks for reading, stay safe and smile on 😊