Stress Therapy!

Wednesday 20th September 2022. Agde..

The forecast for today wasn’t good but it was dry early on and we cycled to the Oppodium d’Enserune to get a view of the Etang de Montady. The Oppodium is a hill site that was once inhabited by Celts! However, we went purely for the view over the Etang. The Etang is a drained circular lake that was created and later drained by Visigoths.

We returned to the van and Janice got the coordinates for our chosen site and I set off cycling to our destination near Adge on the river Herault and virtually on the Mediterranean.

Within minutes I was in a deluge of rain. I hadn’t bothered with a coat, I knew it would rain and I just intended to tough it out and dry off again as it was still 23 degrees. I was soaked but pedalled on skipping through the puddles across the path next to the canal.

I know many readers have complained that the photos I show on the blog are too sunny with blue skies constantly being featured….this upsets many residents of the UK in particular because they live in a grey world. Today’s blog is especially for them because I have gone out of my way to find grey sky and rain.

The route took me very close to the Mediterranean coast and I couldn’t resist going off the route to eat my last piece of Grasmere Gingerbread by the Med. Here is a photo…..it doesn’t look too good! There was no risk of me going for a swim. But, I have seen the Med and having started at Bordeaux it seems a bit of a milestone.

As I approached Agde I was hit by another longer downpour and I hid under the bridge of the D612 major road. It continued and didn’t look much like stopping so I had to persevere to the site where Janice was waiting in the car park.

No navigation problems for Janice….we did still have a problem though. The site reception was closed! We assumed they would be back after lunch and despite me phoning the telephone number at 3pm we got no response, so we went to another site which is perfectly good.

We had some other administration matters to deal with….the van was filthy and needed a good clean. My bike needed a clean. My cycling gear was all wet and needed a wash and to add to that we needed a refill of water etc.

Perhaps more importantly….Janice wanted to get her hands on me! No crude thinking please. As Janice had such a stressful day yesterday she needed to get it all out of her system. I can hear you saying, How?

By chopping my hair off, that’s how! She chopped off all the blonde bits! I have a bit of a family joke that I still consider myself to be blonde, on the basis that I was blonde as a child! So, I still self identify as a blonde.

I had a shave too. I will of course have to start showing proof of age when I buy booze again! In the photo I am showing my favoured stress relief method.

We have sacrificed some Pootling in Agde by getting some domestic chores done but we will have a look in town tomorrow before we see much more of the Med.

Italy beat Uruguay tonight and they top their Pool ahead of France and New Zealand! They haven’t faced either of those two yet though!