I had an emotional roller coaster of a day all of which I believe stemmed from a failure to eat enough sugar in small increments, as the carbs I had didn’t work. It’s fascinating how much more intune I feel between my performance and food.
I started the day with a goal of reaching Leucate. After finding a Açaí bowl and wrangling some water and goodies for the road from a small shop I set off. I was initially feeling terrible and had a flare up with my back. However the quickly passed a couple miles in. I decided to take a different route then the small bit of Eurovelo 8 I’ve been roughly following.
Unfortunately, my tech issues continued so I was forced to use my phone for navigation which is suboptimal in bright conditions. I biked up to Col de Banyuls. It was a steady, steep at-times climb. Green in all directions with a tinkle of cowbells from the distance. At the top is a small hut that was used by those escaping Franco.
The way down was my first trip into France and it did not fail to deliver. The terraced viticulture, streams, and very steep downhill made a magnicificent first impression.
Some distance later I arrived in Banyuls-sur-Mer which almost looked fake it was such a picturesque Mediterranean town. I continued until I reached a similar town, Port-Vendres but started to have navigation issues. Navigation issues would plague me the rest of the day. One of the things that through me was a sign with a bicycle and a line through it. I thought it meant bicycles were prohibited which caused me to retrace my steps. In actuality it just means a bike lane is ending. Lesson learned. Read up on signs first.
The climb out of the city was on very busy mountainous roads with little shoulder. This had me rethinking the Alps.
After that it was about five hours of wrong turns. There were several instances where a beach stroller passed me multiple times as I tried to find where to go.
I hit an energy wall. I got an overpriced hotel and some cheap pizza in Les Barcares. I stood on the beach and felt better. My mood was very, very low in the latter half of the day. The rough plan for tomorrow is Agde.
Sunset is around 9 PM and only getting later. I’m finding that I want to stop around 6 PM. This is making wild camping less of an option but something I just need to find out how to adjust.