We left our lovely hosts Andre and Isabelle this morning about 0915. Andre had already gone to work but Isabelle saw us on our way.

About 10 miles from Mauguio we finally hit the Mediterranean. There is an immense sense of achievement in this. We will be on the Med coast pretty much all the way to Barcelona now. To celebrate we dipped the wheels in the Med! These wheels have touched the water of the San Francisco Bay as well as the Hudson River in New York.

After this ceremony we visited the Cathedrale de Maguelone on Isabelle’s recommendation. Not only a nice cathedral but beautiful peacocks nearby too.

We had a good wander around here before getting back on the bikes and heading towards Sete.

We stoped briefly to watch a game of Pétanque and as we watched , we were joined by a gentleman we met a few days previously. You may recall a post mentioning how a group of us gathered spontaneously on a cycle path perhaps 4-5 days ago. Stephane from Northern Germany was one of the cyclists then and again now maybe 120 miles down the line.

We decided to cycle together as far as Sete where Stephane was staying in a hotel. Hopefully we will meet again in Barcelona. We have a plan!

We met another cyclist on the way out of Sete. Erik is from Sweden and is cycling to Portugal for the Boom festival which having enlightened myself tonight sounds amazing take a look here https://boomfestival.org/boom2022/

We cycled with Erik as far as a campsite I’d spotted. He planned to cycle till 2100 hrs ish but we were calling it a day at 1800 hrs. In the end we couldn’t get into the campsite as they were full . We decided to pitch on some sand dunes nearby about 50 metres from the water but hidden from passers by. We can’t peg the tent fly in the loose sand but that’s fine, we will savour the fresh Mediterranean air and watch the clouds through the top of the inner. This is beautiful.

We continue west tomorrow. It’s hard work in the heat but worth every bead of sweat for the experience and more importantly every penny donated to Médecins Sans Frontières.

Thank you all once again for your incredible support . The fundraiser stands at £128,330 tonight! We go on.