Montpellier-Maastricht: the rolling hills

Day 7: A beautiful place on earth

At the moment, 70km a day is a comfortable pace and anything over that I call "sport", because I must start making a concious effort to pedal on. Today, I did 95km on the roads, rolling up and down the hills a bit less gently than yesterday. I have escaped the traffic but the agricultural scenery is offering no more entertainment than the occasional pig-faced cow here and a roadkill there... In the burning sun with ever-present thirst, I dream about finding a place to swim. I cross the Loire and several small muddy rivers, but come across no beaches. I am not willing to go searching for them either.


Finally I arrive at the most magnificent place - exactly what I've been dreaming of for so many kilometres! An (artificial?) lake called Étang de Baye that somehow reminds me of Estonia. I decide not to go any further and instead enjoy my time here, although there's still 1.5 hours of perfectly bikable daylight time left and usually I don't stop before it gets dark.


I swim topless (why? well... why not? it's a good excuse to cross one more superfluous item off the equipment list), to the amazement of two elderly tourist couples, and wash off about 2/3 of my new dark tan. The sun slowly disappears behind the horizon, and I sit listening to the voices of nature. I fall asleep on the wooden picnic table, keeping one eye open to watch the stars, and wake up at sunrise for a short while, because all the birds in the world have apparently burst into song at once. What a nice night :)


In the morning, I take my time to get ready. I am perfectly willing to stay here another day, but it is not the right time and trip for enjoying myself too much. Instead, I make plans, wondering how to bend some rules in order to make the rest of the road as pleasant as this place here.