Day nine

I set off late again this morning (11:00) but at least I have managed to do some clothes washing. The Dole campsite was well equipped but their Internet was pretty useless. It's a glorious morning and my solar panels still refuse to work so I dump them, maybe a camper can fix it. Apart from some wires there is very little that can go wrong with them, as far as I can see, so it is still a bit of a mystery why it stopped working. 

The going was good today and I seemed to be rattling along, whether that was because the route was mostly downhill or I had a tail wind, I am not sure. At Pagny Le Chateau the EV6 turned right but my Maps.me insisted I should turn left onto a main road. As the main road was in what I considered to be the right direction I took that and spent much of the rest of the day on long straight roads with very little traffic. Towards the end of the day I picked up the EV6 again and was relieved to be back on a cycle path, which was now following the Saône river to Chalon-sur-Saône. It is quite an impressive river considering I have never heard of it before.

I was intending to stop closer to Chalon but spot a campsite that looked less commercialised and as I had not yet checked for campsites it seemed like 'a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush'. It was a great decision. For a mere 10 euros I had excellent WiFi, electricity, hot water and a garden virtually to myself. I am sat on a chair at a table inside a large tent typing this on my laptop with very friendly and helpful neighbours and a receptionist who was more than efficient.

 

Guinguette a dream campsite where everything works and it's the cheapest so far.

I covered 60km today but more importantly my average speed is slowly increasing day by day, which is a good sign. I also broke the 500km on my tripometer but left Germany with some km already on it. The bike has now done around 550km. Meanwhile formatting this (Google) blog using Safari continues to be a nightmare with text all over the place. A tip for everyone: Forget Windows and Apple, use Linux it's free and a whole lot less hassle. 

I stop off at a Lidl for water and some lunch provisions and spot these biscuits at the checkout, Pepparkarkor. 

 

Oh boy my favourite biscuits and I have been looking for them for years. Sadly the box is too big and I cannot add anymore weight to my luggage. At least I got my water and some sandwiches, which is never easy here. Below the Saône river (I think) and a town with an interesting looking church, apparently it's Saint-Jean-de-Losne, I thank Gesine a cycling friend for that info. I can never remember these long French town names and stopping to photo them is impossible.