A big day today, I willl get up into the mountains, 67km, 1,430m uphill. I will go from 300m to 1,100m altitude. I manage to get on the road by 9a.m.
The first 10k is all solid uphill, all on roads luckily so I can ride it. I skim Volvic, it seems a run-down place, I would have thought it more prosperous, since they can sell the water that just gushes from the hillsides.
On up through the woods and fields I make really good time. In some woods I came across a series of cages with whitish animals lying around, at first I thought they were pigs, then realised they were dogs, looked like hunting hounds but smaller, a little further on two men standing in a lay-by outside their respective SUVs haggling, I distinctly heard 400 Euros mentioned and saw one reach into his hip pocked, presumably for his wad, he had bought himself a doggy.
Just after there was a man marching down the near-deserted road, tracksuit top tucked into tracksuit trousers, wearing a covid mask, swinging his arms as he marched as fast as he could. I said “Bonjour” but he ignored me. Sometimes it’s nice to know that there are people in the world as barmy as oneself.
The biggest crater is the “Puy de Dome” and for the first time on the trip I meet walkers and a couple of bike riders. It’s not surprising I suppose that one place becomes famous and everyone goes there. But the woods around the other craters are just as nice to walk in and much less crowded.
It’s a beautiful day and I become immersed in the task of riding, the concentration needed to keep flowing along the trails, the walks uphill, the skids and bumps down, I forget about everything else, muse on nothing, like doing an absorbing piece of work.
A job well done.