Rain, wind, slugs and the rat

There are slugs everywhere. Big yucky ones. They climb the tent, the water bottles, the pan and the panniers. I find them in my shoes and I can’t figure out how to stop it. Torch now required for inspection each time I exit the tent..

Its wet and windy and I am fed up. I wait a while until the heavy morning shower is over and get the tent down whilst its just spitting. More showers as I visit the Autun Roman gates and amphitheatre and then the cathedral with its famous carved entrance.

The ride is wet to damp, quiet wooded hilly and (in retrospect) a bit unmemorable. I finally make it to Lac Setton and pitch my tent in a brief moment of sunshine.

And my companion for this evening? A small cheeky rat is poking his nose under the edge of the tent and gazing at me. I head up to a communal room with the food to cook dinner and return in the pouring rain to find a hole torn through my tent. The rat has helped himself to my emergency ration raisins. I am definitely not friends with him.

The forecast had promised it would stop raining mid afternoon. It is still raining as I go to bed and it rains all night. The tent is now pitched in a puddle and the ground sheet declares unequivocally that it is no longer puddle-tight. I have had happier camping nights (to put it mildly)Read more