Tuesday, December 23, 2008

DAY 33- IN THE TENT BY A RIVER
















"Its times like these you learn to live again"

I'm having a blast.I must admit,I'm really enjoying this.
Today was the kinda day you wish was every day on the bike. This morning I awoke to a dorm room to myself. In fact I think I had the entire hostel to myself. So I got outta bed and collected my laundry (it was scattered around various radiators throughout the hostel-ie, where I left it),packed everything up and made my way into downtown Perigueux. This town is really something else. Its the first town I've visited since leaving Ireland that has loads of Roman building(I must be getting near Italy). So the morning was spent taking photos of a 2000 year old amphitheatre,an 11th century castle,a really old cathedral (date unknown to me) and massive towers that were a world heritage site. Its so cool coming to these places when theres not another tourist in sight. I could have parked my bike in between 2 coach parking spaces and no-one would have cared.Around 11 bells I was leaving town heading in my usual direction (south,south-east) when I was riding by a McDonalds.'Free Wi-Fi',I thought and called in to send off a few emails and update this website with saved diary notes.It was a saturday morning so it was starting to get busy and I couldn't wait to get pedalling.The next few hours were spent riding by the most beautiful terrain;-cliffs,streams,empty villages.old deciduous forests etc etc. It was nearly all up-hill but I just kept surprising myself by how much I was loving this. "I'm loving it".I stopped in some town that had an supermarket and stocked up on goodies for lunch,dinner,breakfast,tomorrows lunch and tomorrows dinner(I think the front axle is overloaded) and then made my way downhill to Montignac.(the cradle of european civilization-it seems)I'm presently camped up in a small forest by a river.Earlier I could hear the sounds of owls in the trees around me,but presently, the farmers' dog from across the river is barking himself hoarse. When you fly-tent you need to generally keep away from from all dwelling as dogs will pick up the new scent and often bark till sunrise. It was getting dark when I noticed this camp spot and I never copped the farm the other side of the river.Oh Well, I'm tired so I'll still sleep but that dog is gonna need the canine equivalent of lemsip for breakfast.This morning I passed busy streets filled full of frantic shoppers(its the 20th of december and I heard my first Christmas song of this trip today.) I crossed into an 11th century castle,a Roman amphitheatre where gladiators would fight to the death and tomorrow I hope to visit the Lascaux caves,where the cradle of european civilisation (more or less) begun.The first people arrived on Ireland 6000 years ago. There are paintings in this cave that are almost treble that time.
As I said at the start,I'm having a blast.

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