Take me to the April "sun"....

The cheapest option for the overnight ferry was reclining seats. The “lounge” our seats were in was under occupied and the British army personnel who were already there had set the scene by rolling out sleeping bags between the seats. We followed suit in the aisles and managed to get some sleep. Woken at 5.30am and off the ferry by 6.30am rolling into Ouistreham on the Normandy coast. It was very cold and the couple of English cyclists also collecting their bikes, couldn't believe we were in short bike shorts. Nor could I after about 10km of freezing. Warmed slightly at a cafe with hot chocolate then back to cycling the desolate beaches. We cycled along the beaches of Sword, Juno and Gold, (British, Canadian, British invasion sites respectively), all landing sites on D-day. We stopped at the 360 degree cinema experience on the cliff above Arromanche. A haunting portrayal of how this area looked during the Allies invasion with contrasting with the tranquility of the coastline now. Looked down on the remains of the Mulberry harbour – an artificial harbour towed across by the Allies to unload supplies for the invasion.

I was nearly in tears watching footage of the bombings and the many wounded soldiers. Incredibly emotional to watch the evidence of such sacrifice and suffering. In my sleep deprived, cold and slightly hungry state, some footage of a kitten wandering a bombed building had me almost sobbing. Seems funny an animal suffering becomes almost more poignant after seeing so many shots of so much human injury.

We headed inland to Bayeux (as in the tapestry).After a little circling we found the camp ground. Pitched our tent and headed straight into town searching for shops and food. The rain started while in town, including some hail. Never a good feeling when you know you are sleeping a tent that night. Saw the Bayeux tapestry – made to record and display the feats of William the Conqueror sometime after 1066. It is 70m long and was pretty impressive. The audio guide was very comprehensive in explaining the scenes although it did not explain any of the very phallic figures in the border of some of the scenes.....

Despite being an accomplished in the art of “damping” having spent many New Zealand “summers” camping with my family, I hate wet tents. They are horrible to pack and difficult to stay dry climbing in and out of. That night it poured. The campground did not really have anywhere to cook and stay dry either making things tricky. Also adjusting to open air urinals....

The next morning it was brillant blue skies - thank god. We set to work drying things and eventually set off back to the Omaha beach. Our first stop was the American cemetery - both the exhibition and immaculate white crosses and stars of David pretty overwhelming. The exhibition also highlighted to me, (much less informed than Nic), that the Normandy invasion was only the beginning of the end of WWII (11 months from D day to VE day).

At the Point du Hoc, (a memorial to the rangers taking a German gun by scaling cliffs under fire from the beaches), we ran into the British army personnel from the ferry. Strange. They were visiting the Normandy sites as a learning exercise. You hope that the learning exercise of war in general might have occurred at a more profound and senior level.

On to Carentan then Perrier for stock piling of food before heading into a little village whose camping ground we nearly missed. Beautiful deserted site (like a local park) all to ourselves - except no running water working in the small shower block. Try explaining that to the local bar man in my non existent French. Some sort of communication happened (I mimed having a shower) and soon we had a manager, a plumber and most excitingly a hot shower (solar water heating!) All for 5.50 euro.

84km that day with the highest average speed of 18km/hr (good roads and lots of food).

Next day was grey skies and within 10km we had our coats on. Didn't take them off for the next 85km and hardly stopped for lunch. We were so relieved when we pulled into Pontorson at the end of the causeway by Mont Saint-Michel, the magical abbey that appears out of the quick sands. Splurged on a proper bed in a chalet - we needed to be dry and warm! In the last 7 days since getting the bikes we have done 440km - this is about 90km more than we thought we would be doing in a week (and that was with 2 rest days!) It is also without ANY proper training. We are pretty tired but think we are getting fitter.