Friday 21st – Sunday 23rd June
After a day of prep / packing and an unfortunate last minute problem with Edward*, we took the overnight ferry from Poole to Cherbourg. All fairly painless. The mandatory wake up call at 5am BST felt like a very short night (4.5hrs) which was because of the cold I have, not any partying or sea sickness.
We decided on breakfast in Cherbourg before we knew there aren’t many cafes open at 7am CET but following maps to the the centre gave us what we needed – a small, simple cafe selling pastries and coffee. We also bought a few supplies for lunch from the market just opening as we left.
We rode the main road circa 90 miles to join the TET (which starts from multiple places joining the U.K. but not Cherbourg). Our first few runs were a bit hairy.
We realised quite quickly that we are no longer used to riding with luggage. The bikes handle completely differently off road. I found it exhausting (and wished I was as fit and bold as Megan Brapp or Graham Garvis… dreams Anna, dreams).
A lunch stop in a field cut for hay gave us some much needed energy.
The afternoon sections became much more enjoyable as we got into the swing of it. They were very similar to what we ride in Hampshire; a mix of dry, fast rubble tracks, farmer’s lanes, backroads and a couple technical and wet paths. We had some fun navigating what felt like a quagmire.
By 5pm we hadn’t made much distance and wanted to get to a campsite at La Ferté-Vidame so skipped a big section from Gace and took country lanes to our campsite.
DAY TWO
OMG have you seen the weather forecast??
It is hot and getting even hotter! Thankful our plan is to head to the mountains and kinda wishing I hadn’t bothered with foul weather gear (I know there is plenty of time for this to change!).
Other than sweating our way through the day, it was full of mass agriculture (with impressive irrigation systems), country lanes, copious rural villages, Châteaus and riding through farmer’s fields. It was easy riding and vastly different from the TET sections of yesterday.
Despite this, we still manage to have an accident. We were merrily enjoying another potato field when suddenly the ruts turned deeper and uneven. Howard hit it, probably too fast and loses control which descends into a ‘tank slapper’ and launches him to the floor face first. It looked nasty but he was thankfully unhurt.
As we set off to ride again he realised something isn’t quite right – the forks are twisted, could see it plain as day. We yanked it back into position as best we could and rode gingerly to the nearest campsite we could find.
He’s busy hatching a plan on how to repair the bike tomorrow. It probably means diverting to Dijon to buy tools then an afternoon of fork mechanics.
Our campsite for this evening is Camping Val de Flux, on the banks of the river Loire in Beaugency, circa 120km covered today.
Finishing on a positive – the reception lady at our campsite called my French speaking ‘tres bien’!
*Howard found a fuel leak from the carburettor late Thursday evening, just as he was doing the final checks. He had to take Friday off work to fix it. The part he needed was (obviously) specialist and a 3 hour round trip to Bristol to get – not an option. So he pilfered bits from Gertrude and made some tweaks instead. We’re hoping it holds 😬
Over Engineered Travel 
Hi Guys, Sounds like an interesting start to the trip. I hope you get the forks straight tomorrow and have a fun time. 🙂
LikeLike