Rain or drizzle all day, 13-16deg, (doubt it got to 16) 46km, av. 16.7km/h, tot. 1203km.
A little sleep-in (0615 instead of 0600) and then a leisurely brekky started the day . We discovered that the blog last night didn't load properly because of poor wifi so had to delete all the photos. Will try and put them on when we get decent wifi.
A very ordinary day again weather wise but it wasn't going to stop us doing our planned ride to Fromelles. So raincoats on and off we peddled the 23km. First we visited the newest war cemetery (Pheasant Wood) for Australian dead, the last one was 1960, at Fromelles. The is the one that was made for the 250 Aussie and British soldiers who were discovered in a mass grave nearby. It was dedicated in 2010. Co-located with this cemetery is a Battlefields Museum which tells the story about the area, how the identification of the remains was done and displays equipment and artifacts which were recovered during the exhumation. This museum was opened this month, July 2014. The whole setup is very slick and professionally done.
It was then onto VC (Cobbers) Corner, about 2km up the road, where there is a life-size bronze statue of a digger carrying a wounded soldier . The inspiration for the statue came from a story of a Sergeant who used to go out and carry back the wounded. "Don't forget me Cobber," was the words he heard one day. Also at VC Corner is an Aussie cemetery and memorial with a lovely rose garden and a remembrance wall. There's no headstones here because most of the 410 who died here could not be identified. Fromelles is so significant because it was the biggest loss of Aussies in battle in one day ever, a staggering 5,533 brave souls. Very sobering thought that so many men who each had a family waiting for them back home were killed in that one attack on 19/20 July 1916. We rode back to the motel in the rain without too much to say.
Lille is the first city in this part of France we've come across with decent cycle paths, which surprised us. Granted some cities have had paths but 5-10km out they dried up. We hadn't seen many touring cyclists at all up to now in France, now we know why. It was so relaxing being on a cycle path instead of mixing it with the trucks, buses and cars, particularly when it's raining and / or windy. Anyway although sad we enjoyed the day's riding, despite the weather.
Lunch was in a Sizzlers type restaurant, roast chicken with lashings of veggies, something we've really missed in France.
The afternoon was spent lounging around our room listening to the rain, catching up with emails and doing bike maintenance. Wendy had worn out her back brake pads, must have been all those hills we went down.
Dinner was at the same restaurant as lunch as it is in the same building as the motel (no need to go out in the rain) and we enjoyed lunch. We did don our raincoats and go for a short walk, but were soon back in our dry, warm room.
No photos again today as they still won't load.