Leaving Mayenne the route was away from the river but straight onto a very pleasant gradient old rail trail . The day started off dry but deteriorated into some rainy spells that made a muddy mess of panniers and Bob copped a lot at the back .

Was a big km day but the trail was fairly quick and we started earlier than out normal time so arrived at a campsite at Saint Hilaire du Harcouet in good time . Saw my very first dairy tanker today after all of this trip , we were finally in real dairy country .

The ride to Mont St Michel was a short day and we arrived in fine form and set up out final campsite of the trip . All up we had 40 nights in the tent and 28 in other accommodations.

Mont st Michel is a major tourist attraction that has thousands of visitors daily . It was built in 11 century and is a spectacular Abby and a town surrounding it . To get there you can walk out on the 2 km causeway or catch a bus or ride a bicycle . From our campsite was a constant stream of humanity taking the long walk out . Far too many people for my liking. I elected to wait till dusk to head out as the crowds were manic.

After a very nice diner we took the bikes at about9 pm and rode out to have a close up look at the Mont st Michel . Still busy but not nearly as many folk . After a look around we headed back , me a little ahead of Barb so I didn’t get to witness the accident .

Barb was cycling back , heard a vehicle behind and decided to ride up onto the pathway which is higher than the road by about 100 mm . The fatal flaw is the use of steel plate to provide a border for the decking above . Steel is too slippery and just like railway lines , they cause countless accidents in the cycling fraternity.

I was back at camp wondering why Barb was taking so long when finally I got the message that she was being taken to a hospital some 25 kms away to have medical attention to a head wound . Was a bit of a worrying time . She asked me to go back to retrieve her bike now locked to causeway at the accident point . When I finally located her bike I proceeded to ride it back to camp . Near the campsite I needed to cycle up and over the decked area to a path in the camp . Next thing I know I’m flat on my arse with crash number 2 of our fateful evening . Not too seriously injured , I had an instant moment of realisation of exactly what why and how Barbs crash had happened .

Barb arrived back after midnight to the camp and settled into a worried night with lots of pain meds etc . She has 3 stitches and lots of sore places , teeth , jaw , knees , ribs .

I wondered if Barb would want to ride the last day into St Malo , as I could have ridden it and picked up a hire car to pick her up. But NO , she remained adamant that she wanted to ride. And she did !

St Malo is a bustling sea port with an interesting marina area , lots of shops and hotels and bucket loads of people . Did a little shopping for souvenirs

Tomorrow we board a ferry to take us back to the UK , To our friends Andrew and Judy‘s place for our last few days as we get all our kit in a ready state to fly home . This has been an epic adventure , such a big collection of memories . What a 70th !!