We looked at our entrusted Ventusky app which shows us exactly when the rain will arrive today.
But on the off chance it might be wrong I put the waterproof jackets and trousers into our clip on and quick release unsightly yellow panniers.
We bought a 15 quid pair of throwovers which lasted 3 years as never took them off when putting bikes into garage.
We happened to meander into a bike shop in Brittany last year and were shocked as to how not as expensive as we thought they might be. Instead of an impulse purchase there was some Amazon purchasing and we think it was about 65 pound the pair. Really well made, waterproof and puto on and off in seconds. We have a lock attached to them which will slow down an opportunist thief.
As we went the other way out of le Sègala it was well noted about the really really poor muddy and slippy surface. We knew our return journey for the last 2 Kms would be in the road and then we got hard packed stone until we met with a sign "Bienvenue Haut Garonne" and then the path was turned into smooth tarmac in a slightly off colour jaded pink but lovely to ride on.
The first photo is from our beer position in front of the van last night.
The second photo is the appropriate page of the map of today's route. I suspect all office du tourismes have it and would suspect the ones west of Toulouse have a completely different map covering le canal their side, but it beats buying a book.
Some lovely locks then we came across le canal going over a river as a bridge.
We noted several of the bird boxes which going by the size we suspect are owl boxes. It is similar to one we have. But happy to be corrected. They appeared every 200m at one point which seems a bit close.
We had some sections of double tree lined avenue with those archetypal trees that I don't know what they are but really stunning going through those parts.
Then we saw a coach load of kids, possibly 10 or 11 years old and going in opposite direction to us.
The time was now 1200 hrs so we had 2 hours til the rain came and Montgiscard wasn't far.
Then a few spots,
Then a few more,
Time for coats,
Time for waterproof trousers.
It was now teeming down but we had done 27 of the 30 Kms so pressed on into the weather.
You have to come off the canal to Montgiscard. It is uphill though there is an intermatche adjacent to canal. There is the square root of diddly squat at Montgiscard. So we had lunch in the square under a tree on a park bench in the pouring down rain.
At this point we remembered about our cycling gloves which we store in a zip up part of our coats. They went on.
And we headed back in tour mode keeping up 25kph and to hell with the battery usage. That's what the lithium battery was bought for !
15kms from le Sèlaga and Montgiscard is the only open bar restaurant and Chocolat chaud was introduced to our bodies.
We took the road detour back and caught up with those 50 or so kids who were eating in what we presumed was a bar that was never opened anymore at le Sègala. We had already warned a family about the way they were going being a quagmire and one of the locals warned the teachers and told them about a better detour. The teachers obviously decided this was a character building exercise and continued. We could hear all the screaming of excited and scared children and arguments between adults, but they must have kept going (or slipped into the water)
Last photo is of the sign you will see at every ecluse (lock) giving the exact metreage to the next or previous on
But on the off chance it might be wrong I put the waterproof jackets and trousers into our clip on and quick release unsightly yellow panniers.
We bought a 15 quid pair of throwovers which lasted 3 years as never took them off when putting bikes into garage.
We happened to meander into a bike shop in Brittany last year and were shocked as to how not as expensive as we thought they might be. Instead of an impulse purchase there was some Amazon purchasing and we think it was about 65 pound the pair. Really well made, waterproof and puto on and off in seconds. We have a lock attached to them which will slow down an opportunist thief.
As we went the other way out of le Sègala it was well noted about the really really poor muddy and slippy surface. We knew our return journey for the last 2 Kms would be in the road and then we got hard packed stone until we met with a sign "Bienvenue Haut Garonne" and then the path was turned into smooth tarmac in a slightly off colour jaded pink but lovely to ride on.
The first photo is from our beer position in front of the van last night.
The second photo is the appropriate page of the map of today's route. I suspect all office du tourismes have it and would suspect the ones west of Toulouse have a completely different map covering le canal their side, but it beats buying a book.
Some lovely locks then we came across le canal going over a river as a bridge.
We noted several of the bird boxes which going by the size we suspect are owl boxes. It is similar to one we have. But happy to be corrected. They appeared every 200m at one point which seems a bit close.
We had some sections of double tree lined avenue with those archetypal trees that I don't know what they are but really stunning going through those parts.
Then we saw a coach load of kids, possibly 10 or 11 years old and going in opposite direction to us.
The time was now 1200 hrs so we had 2 hours til the rain came and Montgiscard wasn't far.
Then a few spots,
Then a few more,
Time for coats,
Time for waterproof trousers.
It was now teeming down but we had done 27 of the 30 Kms so pressed on into the weather.
You have to come off the canal to Montgiscard. It is uphill though there is an intermatche adjacent to canal. There is the square root of diddly squat at Montgiscard. So we had lunch in the square under a tree on a park bench in the pouring down rain.
At this point we remembered about our cycling gloves which we store in a zip up part of our coats. They went on.
And we headed back in tour mode keeping up 25kph and to hell with the battery usage. That's what the lithium battery was bought for !
15kms from le Sèlaga and Montgiscard is the only open bar restaurant and Chocolat chaud was introduced to our bodies.
We took the road detour back and caught up with those 50 or so kids who were eating in what we presumed was a bar that was never opened anymore at le Sègala. We had already warned a family about the way they were going being a quagmire and one of the locals warned the teachers and told them about a better detour. The teachers obviously decided this was a character building exercise and continued. We could hear all the screaming of excited and scared children and arguments between adults, but they must have kept going (or slipped into the water)
Last photo is of the sign you will see at every ecluse (lock) giving the exact metreage to the next or previous on
