A nice relaxing day yesterday including a swim, sauna and steam room at the local Hilton spa, GPS arrived and spent the rest of the afternoon trying to get the maps from  Open Street Maps downloaded onto it. It was then rounded off with a Chinese meal in honour of Helens birthday which was last week and forgotten by me as usual.

The wind was really kicking up as I reloaded the bike for the run to Ashford to catch the train to France. Watching the sea as I rode through Hastings I was quite pleased not to be crossing by ferry this time. I hadn’t heard anything but the wind and waves were that strong I would not be surprised if some of the sailing were cancelled, and more delays I could definitely do without ! The ride was thankfully uneventful inspite of having a constant battle against the wind which make the riding quite tiring. The cross was as ever, fast and efficient, on a calm day |I still think the ferry is a

much nicer start to a trip but for today I’m just pleased to be in France and on my way south at long last. Ran down the coast to Boulogne being battered by the huge gusts blowing in from the channel. I stayed off the motorway for most of the run as the route national 901 is a far more interesting ride and also a little more sheltered (but not much today). So tonight I’m camped at an Aire at ther back of a picnic site, reasonably sheltered by tall hedges on three sides and more or less hidden from view unless someone pokes their nose around the corner. Dinner consisted of the last of my home made quiche with some egg fried rice and very tasty it was, all the more so as I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, although that is not unusual for me when on a road trip.

Total   mileage 218

Day 4 (3^rd days riding)

Total mileage approx 380 Problems with GPS i.e. routing and lack of power made accurate mileage impossible.

Stopped about 40 miles north of Claremont Ferrand, weather was closing in and wanted to get camp set up before rain started. Made it… just! Spotted a tiny sign by the side of the road and followed about 3km of little winding lane to one of the best camp site locations I’ve ever been to. Completely isolated with only a couple of caravans on site and several acres of rough, grassed woodland in which to pitch. All looks a little run down, but the facilities all work and are spotless; good enough for me! Dinner was chopped up bacon and onion with a bag of rice, all topped off with some grated cheese…Ooo I do know how to live it up when I’m on the road! Now just relaxing listening to the gentle rain from heaven falling softly on the earth below! Oh yes, and enjoying just a very small nip of finest malt… can’t see it lasting long at this rate but it is nice after a long ride whist relaxing!

May make it to Taz & Joel tomorrow if the weather is kind to me, or may be a little short; either way it’s not a problem as I have all the time in the world.

Well, the weather was not kind to me… no not at all! It started with a little drizzle as |I pack the wet kit away and steadily got worse all day. As I was riding across the Central Massive it was also damn cold and just to add to my misery it was also mistly once above about 2000ft, which I was most of the day. I even detoured to see the famous Millau Bridge but all I saw were clouds… from the inside!

So I just kept riding, working on the principle that if I got far enough south it must improve mustn’t it ?  And at 4.25pm precisely I saw my first glimpse of blue sky, not enough to make a sailors trousers, as my mother used to say, but blue it was and shortly after I ran out of the rain. It was 402 miles on the clock by the time I found my stopping place, rather inappropriately called “My Fun”; the bar was shut, the pool was shut and they wanted 9 Euros for the WiFi… hence no blog last night! OK, I admit I’m a cheap skate but I simply refuse to pay for WiFi in this day and age; not least I can get a Big Mac for less and all the WiFi I can eat!!!

So I didn’t make to Taz & Joel that was another 100 miles later and a new day.