Day 17 - Plan B

From St Vivien to Verdon Sur Mer (42.2 miles) for the first half of the day.

Matty managed to secure us a camping spot on the village green in a small town Called St Vivien after a short cycle from Aytre last night. We woke up to a bit of a drizzle which persisted throughout the day. For this reason you can't quite make out the cool platform in this photo that took us over the river Charente. It's apparently a bridge that is unique to Rochefort and the excitement of this fact was certainly not lost on the team! 

Not only has the invalid got a gammy knee, I also now need to see a dentist sharpish due to a broken tooth keeping me up for most of last night. It was a tough decision to make but in order for the team to carry on the cycle with any chance of reaching Morocco we decided that I should travel to San Sebastien (Spain) by train to try to get the tooth sorted and to give the leg a rest before tackling Spain and Morocco. It's a shame that I won't be able to finish cycling the next half of France but it seems the only option after a few days of struggling along. Since we have a limited amount of time to finish the cycle (flights are booked back to the UK from Marrakesh on the 1st of September) it makes sense for me not to hold the rest of the team up.

Sitting in San Sebastien in a hostel on the seafront right now after having taken the train via Bordeaux. I had a couple of hours to spare in Bordeaux but it seems unless you are looking for an African style haircut or a sex shop you are likely to be disappointed by the parts of Bordeaux that I managed to see in that time!

As for the rest of the team we will edit this to add in what they got up to after we parted.

(For more info on our journey check out http://www.cycle-to-sahara.co.uk/)