Simple plan – get off the ferry in St Malo, turn right, make it up as I go along, at some point turn back and get the return ferry.
Was overcast a fair bit of the time and there was the odd spot of drizzle but overall couldn’t ask for better weather – not too hot, not to cold and, most importantly, not too wet.
Started off nicely and eventually found some gravel tracks so went to see where they led.
Ended up at the start of a GR trail by the looks of it but was a very steep, narrow, blind descent to a river that was quite muddy so decided against it fully loaded with my limited experience.
Found myself in a forest with a rest area so, it being at least 3 hours since my last shot of caffeine stopped to make a cuppa
Before continuing to randomly choose roads to ride down.
Found a nice little campsite for the night in Glomel with a lovely view of a lake.
After cobbling together and scoffing the food I’d found at the nearest Lidl and washing it down with a couple of cans of lager it was time to turn in.
Next day I wanted to have a look at the farm/field tracks I could see all over the countryside that weren’t always appearing on my Garmin. Found a nice straight rock/dirt track and went for a nose. The track then started climbing up to what looked like a field entrance and perhaps another track at right angles to the one I was on that might lead me back to the road….what to do?
Decided I had three choices – turn around and find an easier track, park and walk up the slope to see what’s at the top, or just plod on up and deal with whatever is at the end.
Option 1 I ruled out pretty quickly as I was already about 40ft up the slope and didn’t fancy either turning or backpedalling the loaded bike on the loose rocks. Option 2 was much the same – ruts wouldn’t let me get the sidestand down. Therefore option 3 it was.
Got to the top of the slope and found a very rocky, uneven area with 2 fields in front of me, a very overgrown track on my right and a less overgrown but still uninviting track on my left.
Couldn’t turn where I was as I was still on the slope so rode onto the grassy, but level, track on my left and attempted a 3-point turn. Unfortunately that didn’t quite work out as I got stuck across the track with the front wheel in one wheel rut and the rear in the other. Pushed and pulled as much as I could to try and angle the bike a bit better but wasn’t getting very far.
Chose to attempt to ride and turn up and over the centre of the track and of course the inevitable happened…
While the bike had a bit of a snooze I took the bags off that I could access and then found out how heavy my bike is for the first time. After a couple of attempts without much movement I was already trying to remember how far I’d have to walk to the nearest civilisation to ask for help. Gave it one more go and managed to finally get her the right way up – to much complaining from my lower back!
Bags back on and back down the slope to the road.
Next stop coffee and a croque and give the back a bit of a break on the tarmac.
Hit the sea near Douarnenez so thought it best to stop going west and turned back east.
Wanted to get a few miles in before stopping for the night so was looking to hop on the N165 for a bit to blast towards Lorient. Seems the French farmers had other ideas however and had dumped lorry loads of hay bales (some set alight) at the next 4 or 5 motorway junctions I tried to use in a protest against the government. Eventually found an open junction so sat on the dual carriageway for half an hour before looking for a place to camp for the night.
Ended up at a very nice family campsite at St-Nicolas-des-Eaux that had cold beer in the fridge so settled in for the night.
The next day I was getting the ferry in the evening so after having a stern word with myself I realised my trip to find dirt tracks in Brittany was falling a bit short and I needed to make up for it today.
Found a nice easy looking track just outside a little village and after using the universal hand signals for ‘is it ok for me to take my motorcycle along here’ with a local woman feeding her horse in the next field I set off.
Came back out on the tarmac about a mile later and from then on my eyes were on stalks for similar tracks.
Most of them were very simple, straight runs alongside fields.
With some petering out before the next stretch of tarmac – which just meant riding on slightly grassier terrain.
Getting closer to Dinan I noticed more and more cycle track signs.
Some of these I chose not to try as I had visions of getting stuck somewhere I couldn’t get out of.
But others, although a little on the tight side, were easy enough to ride along.
By this point it was only a couple of hours to departure so got back on the main roads and headed to the port.
Despite a couple of false starts, all in all a good trip…although next time I may have to pick a lighter steed to feel more confident tackling the more interesting tracks.
Apologies for the wordiness – need to perfect my RRs.
Cheers
Jersey
