18. Day 10. Saturday 31st August

Start Point: Sedan 560'
Highest Point during the day: 925'
End Point: Verdun 785'
Total Climbing 1185'
Climbing difficulty factor 40
Distance: 59 miles
Cumulative distance: 457 miles

Just had the best shower of the journey! In an F1 Hotel (anyone remember?)

Following my day off on Friday, I was ready for an early start today. Despite a sunny and warm forecast, it was quite chilly as I brought my bike out into the open at 8:15, and there was a little bit of rain in the air. I stuck with the shorts, but added a lightweight waterproof jacket.

With time on my hands the previous night, I had experimented with different options on the bike route website. The biggest issue was a lot of ups and downs on the elevation profile for today, but a pretty flat option if I followed the river (River Meuse), which would mean more miles but less climbing. The problem was that the cycle route normally indicated with a red line, was a dotted red line following the river. I couldn't find any description of what dotted meant but decided it was worth a try. I made myself a new route for the day and loaded up 'plan b' onto the gps. All went well till about 10am. The path in front of me was getting narrower and narrower, and I was gathering vegetation as I tried to keep going. Eventually, at the point indicated in the photo, I gave up and started walking with the bike:

  
The idea of turning round was out of the question as I had been on this path for a few miles with nothing on the left and only the river on my right. The sat nav indicated that there were country lanes about 3/4 mile ahead towards the left.

It's amazing how quickly you can get into a mess, because soon I was struggling to get the bike through deep undergrowth and scrambling under branches. When I got into the open, it was very long grass which was still wet with dew, and soon my shoes, socks and feet were wet.

The worse was yet to come, as I reached barbed wire and/or electric cattle fences. The bike is quite heavy with the pannier bags but I lifted it over about three obstacles. The field became better underfoot but at the opposite end was a large herd of cows (or were they bulls I wondered?). Anyway, they stared at me but didn't come over for a closer look.

Then came the highest obstacle. A fence/gate made out barbed wire and chains about chest high. There was no way I could lift the bike over as it stood, so I took the bags off and then managed to get the bike onto the other side. Unfortunately, I had to let it fall away from me as the barbed wire was snagging my jacket. I then got the bags over and finally myself. Phew! No injuries, but the bracket which hold the drinks bottle had broken.

At the other side of this fence was a farm track heading to the road showing on my sat nav screen. Three farm workers were about 200 yards away and were looking at me. Maybe a French confrontation was about to unfold. I practiced the words "lost" "sorry" and "sat nav" in my head. Thankfully, I didn't need them, and a minute later, I was on a proper road made out of tarmac. In total, nearly an hour had been spent getting out of my mess!

The rest of the morning was quiet. Most of the villages seemed closed. I thought, being a weekend, there might be more people around. I didn't see many shops, and the only bakery I passed was closed - on a Saturday lunchtime! What's all that about?

Lunch was a couple of crepes left over from yesterday and a muesli bar. Over the next two hours in the Meuse valley, I passed several war cemeteries. They were all WW1 and French except for one which was WW1 German. This is one of the French ones:

My 60 mile journey was planned to end in a large town called Verdun. I had checked hotels the night before but not booked anything as it seemed to be a big place with lots of choices. I had decided to see how far I got, how tired I felt, and what hotels were around. By about 4pm I had reached Verdun and was ready to stop, but decided it would be nice to get a hotel on the south side of town so that I was ready on Sunday to continue without having to go through the town.

Everything worked out well, because about half a mile after the town centre, I saw a sign for a Formula 1 hotel 2km ahead. It must be 20 years since I have stayed in one, but it was exactly the same. No receptionist, just a credit card in the wall (£25) and you are given a code to access the front door and the bedroom door. Showers and toilets are down the corridor. They were very clean and the shower was really hot and powerful.

The only thing I had forgotten was how small the rooms are. There is literally just enough room for me, a bed, and of course, my bike:

Finally, here is the map. Blue spot me, red spot Wengen about 340 miles away.