Pézenas to Gruissan

October 17, 2023

Puddles, Bones and Barricades

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We had quite an entertaining day today, I must say. We woke up to rain. It wasn’t unexpected, we had seen the forecast, but one always hopes. So we lingered in the breakfast room and waited for the promised lighter rain in the later morning. It did lighten up, and while it was raining when we left it certainly wasn’t a downpour.

Keith declared early on that there would be few photos. He had his waterproof phone wrapped up as a precautionary measure and mine was in the pocket of my Goretex jacket for the same reason. So we began.

You wouldn’t ride at home in this stuff, but once you are out in it it is just fine.

Over the autoroute. We were having way more fun than they were.

We were following Scott Anderson’s route, which was great until it wasn’t. More on that later. What we were finding interesting to negotiate were the massive puddles.

I loved when Keith warned me not to slip here. Trust me, I was being very careful.

Then some great riding on a paved surface and we were really enjoying Scott’s route. That is when we came to the barricade. Double fenced, barbed wire, locks, no way around. It was so frustrating as we could see the construction on the other side, and we could have ridden around no problem. It was a big hole full of pipes and no one was working today. Unfortunately there was absolutely no way around.

We sheltered in a convenient tent while the CN rerouted us.

Which resulted in more puddle avoidance training.

Now came the truly confusing bit. Keith got us back on route and things were going well…and thankfully the rain had stopped, when we came to a real puzzle. Scott’s route was impassable. Keith had me laughing as he pointed out the bones (animal sacrifice he suggested), and the signs, and postulated that so many bike tourers had followed the Anderson route through here they had had a ceremony to prevent anyone from getting through. The weird thing was, we were both now rerouting on our phones and what came up on my Ride with GPS and Google Maps and Keith’s Guru was the blocked path showing it going through.

Another clear sign, if you bushwhack that far.

So back we went. Some hilarity for me, the CN was working away rerouting, and as we were stopped I thought I would take advantage and have, as the Tour de France puts it, a nature break. It had probably been an hour since we had seen another person, so I made no attempt to conceal myself at the side of the trail. I had just put myself back together when two mountain bikers came screaming past with a cheery “Bonjour”. Timing is everything.

Our new route skirted Béziers and took us through big box land, which had a beautiful bike lane! Some stores I recognized, like the biggest Lidl and Decathlon we have ever seen, but some were new to me.

Then this. Where your trailer goes to die.

We stopped in Cers at a bench protected both from the weather and by the Gendarmes. It was right next to the police station. It had everything we needed, and then some.

After that the riding became much easier. The route was clear, the rain stopped, it was warming up by the second, and it was straightforward to follow Scott’s route. We followed it probably 70% of the time. This was a 2017 route. Seems like yesterday, doesn’t it, but clearly some changes have happened.

The wind was really piping up and the waves were mesmerizing.

We sat down in Saint-Pierre-la-Mer to book a room in Gruissan. It was 12 km away and we had decided to wait until we were sure we would make it there to book. It is really off season here now, and we sat in a closed café’s covered area as it had started raining again. Fortunately that was brief. The wind was crazy, but unbelievably it was a tailwind. What followed was probably the fastest 12 km of my life.

First there was the bike lane. With absolutely no one around it looked more like an airport runway. It was just so much fun to blast down this.

It was bike lane all the way into Gruissan. We were pushed along by the wind and it was fabulous.

We checked in, plugged in the electronics and had some real laughs over dinner about the day. We ate at the restaurant closest to the hotel. It is still blowing a gale here. It is warm though, 21°C as I write this and it is 10 PM.

Here is the Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/v1vj9GkBpJq

Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 1,254 km (779 miles)

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