What an awesome experience!

You can only use it twice a day as it depends on the tides…so you have to time your crossing. I arrived in good time and already there was a big queue of cars waiting to cross.

But, being on a bike, I proceeded directly to the front and joined pedestrians and some other cyclists at the water’s edge, looking out across to our destination, the island of Nomoutiere.

And so, slowly but surely, the water receded and inch by inch, the Passage de Gois revealed itself and by doing so, allowed the eager beaver cyclists and pedestrians to proceed slowly along the concrete surface and I was right at the front, sometimes riding through shallow flowing water as the tide receded.

It was pretty cool that.

Along the road there are a couple of towers which you can climb to get a view across the water and I could see the same thing happening from the other end, people slowly edging forward. The towers are in fact there in the event a car can’t make it across, which has happened several times, giving the driver a chance to abandon the car and climb to safety.

Once I made it to the island I proceed to ride north, looking for a place to camp – and sadly, being holidays, the island was rammed and struggled to find anything suitably wild.

When I finally did it was campsite that came with at a pricey 20 euros but what choice did I have with so many people crawling around.

It wasn’t too bad, pretty much right on the beach with hot showers, worth it for the Passage du Gois alone.

I set up camp right under a tree in the shade and just a short walk away was the beach. I took a ride around the island and found a quieter beach and had a sweet swim.

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