I had such a nice evening with Marie-Lyne and Louis. They made delicious dinner and there was red wine and travelling talk until we couldn't keep our eyes open any more and went to bed.
After a good breakfast, I headed out onto the trail, glad of the thick blanket of cloud after the heat of yesterday. Spring is definitely here now! The woodland floors have bright green shoots and leaves emerging from the leaf litter and ferns are uncurling themselves by the side of the path. Some trees are already covered in tiny bright green leaves.
The birds are chirping away happily as ever, courting and gathering nest material. It's been a good day for wildlife - I saw another chipmunk briefly before he ran into his burrow, a musk rat scurried away as I passed by and a skunk sauntered across the trail so close I had to slow down! There are little violet butterflies warming themselves on the trail and neon blue flying bugs that draft along beside me, an entourage of shining jewels. I saw a hawk, a huge eagle and lots of lovely little birds - my favourite is a little blackbird with incredible bright orange and yellow semicircles on the tops of its wings.
The farms are coming to life all around. I thought I was going to pass out once or twice from the smell of liquid chicken shit being spread on the fields ahead of me, but I made it out alive.
It's been a lazy day because I only had 60km to cover, so I've spent a lot of time at trail stops and cafes just chilling between short rides through forests and farmlands. Ahh, this is the life.
Tonight I'm staying with couchsurfing hostess Rebecca in the town of Danville. Tomorrow I will be making up for today's laziness with another 100k day.
Found out that bird is called a red-winged blackbird.
ReplyDeleteWe had our away day last week and all chatted about your adventures and your blog which we are all really enjoying. Keep up the good work and when you are feeling down, just remember it could be worse, you could be sitting in the London office staring at a computer monitor!
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