Le Tour de Med ! : Day 11 - Dinan 30kms - "And then there were 3" !

The final member of our birthday group celebrated his 52nd birthday today in St .Heliere a little worse for wear on his big day having contracted a bug that looks suspiciously like the Henley strain of the Ebola virus (.. yes he is sick once again!)

Birthdays on tour have not brought much luck to our recipients - Viv (no taxi to go out), Noel (having to search for Rick) and now Harro carrying the Henley virus !

We'd succeeded in spending our remaining Jersey pounds (not legal tender in the UK) and stocked up on one final English breakfast as we said goodbye to our excellent if slightly "Fawlty Towers" style hotel in St.Heliere

One final act of bravery though was required ! Once again we took on the peak hour traffic of Jersey winding our way down narrow streets and through its 400 metre tunnel with Harro (birthday boy) close enough behind to take a photo while he was riding (apparently braking was an optional extra with him having no available free hands !)

Our queue for the Condor high speed ferry was moving pretty slowly so we jumped lanes with the offending car still being interrogated by the ticketing official right up till the time of boarding

Our Super Cat !

Safely on board it was time to relax or in Harro's case die quietly !

Our trip passed uneventfully disembarking on time in St Malo. From our arrival point we journeyed about 1km to our small sea bus / ferry that took us and our bikes to the other side of the St Malo estuary (Dinard) thus limiting our exposure to busy traffic. At 9 euros for the 10 minute journey this would have equated to $300 one way fare to Jersey - one hell of a rip off !

Harro celebrating his birthday on the way to Dinard !

Disembarking at Dinard we faced the problem of getting our fully laden bikes up stairs utilizing a 30% bike ramp.

Kevin "They dont call me Albert for nothing" Henley engineered a solution by advocating that riders take control of the laden bike with one pushing and another pulling to get the bikes safely up !

Despite having a cold Harro's sniffer was still good enough to find us a boulangerie and cafe where we sat and ate while watching ominous black clouds begin to roll in.

On our bikes Rick once again did a great job of mapping our way out of trouble and other than an initial busy section of road leaving Dinard we were soon reunited with a cycle path (a mainly good surface) direct to Dinan.

All went well (if you count Henley calling Noel across the road with a car coming, and if you excuse Rick riding 3 times on the wrong side of the road) - until 10 kms out when we were hit by pretty heavy rain that had us soaked through in no time forcing us to take shelter !

Amazing Graffiti / Street Art !

A Waterlogged Henley !

With the rain not stopping we eventually bit the bullet and cycled the remaining distance into Dinan a stunningly beautiful cobbled stoned town perched on top of a "granny granny" hill !

Wet through we deposited ourselves at our reception. We looked a pretty bedraggled bunch as we went off to our separate accommodation, ours an arty warehouse style with Henley's bedroom up on the roof and Rick and Noel's nearby apparently with a double bed and fortunately for Noel, a fold out settee !

Before taking advantage of our unique accommodation there was time to get out and do some exploring around this beautiful town !