Word Of Mouse

Good news. Ali survived the tick incident... but it was tough on us both: for four or five days her fever would show tantalizing signs of abating, then reappear with a vengeance, leaving her feeling as dreadful as can be imagined and me feeling nervous. A second consultation with the cheerfully rotund Dr. Laszbley convinced me that all that could be done was to help her sit it out, and I stocked up on rehydration mix and headed back to the hotel. Another day and she was clearly on the mend though very weak. We decided against going for the blood test for Lymes Disease, on the grounds that we were already undergoing the recommended treatment. We have both learned things from last week: I now know how to treat tick bites and feverish patients, and that French daytime TV is no better than the homegrown kind.

By Sunday we were desperate to get out of Hotel Marmotte: I was beginning to develop symptoms of omlette poisoning from the hotel restaurant and the wallpaper was invading our dreams. Despite Ali still feeling weak and shaky she decided that anything would be better than staying there another night and we packed up the bike and wobbled off into Redon en route for the nearest campsite 25 km away at Guemene Penfao.

This turned out to be an easy ride and we made it by midday to find a very pleasant campsite with lots of shade (though no bog roll in the loos - score minus five) and just in time to stock up on food before the shops all closed for Pentecost. We lay down and gazed up through the fluttering leaves at the clouds passing overhead, and thought about how good it was to be back outside and on the road again.

From Guemene Penfao, where the friendly and chatty manager of the campsite had expressed great interest in our trip and enthused about the beauty of Morocco and the friendliness of its people, another relatively easy ride took us via Nozay in a dead straight line mile after mile through the flat countryside to Nort-sur-Erdre, where we found another pleasant municipal campsite. We made a foray into town and managed to locate an open restaurant with the help of local knowledge.

We were impatient to reach the valley of the Loire, now tantalizingly close, so a further short day has brought us to the town of Ancenis, just up-river from Nantes. It has been a good place to spend a day of recuperation and Ali has found a map of cycle routes up the Loire from here, so several more days of easy waterside cycling are in prospect.