What a terrible nights sleep. First im all over the show and stressed about tomorrow. Getting the bike fixed. Then Im woken up by a scuffling noise near my head. There was something underneath the tent scuffling around! Arghhh!! Ignoring it,
and then dreaming of nasty stuff invading me.
Really didnt make for a good time! Especially seeing blobs moving about. I was expecting some nasty big ass thing to burst through the lining and kill me.
I was awake before the alarm at 7am. Hearing more scuffling noises around me under the tent. Urghhhh wasnt good. Got packed up and was on the bike by 8am. Amazingly the back tyre had held up overnight! So headed out east to the bike shop. Oh, even after lifting the tent, I never found out what was underneath it! There was nothing there!
I got to this Zone Artisand industrial estate where it was supposed to be, and could I find it? Could I heck! I cycled around and around, and no sign of it anywhere! Really wasnt a good time! It must have existed, the guy at the camp site knew about it, and when Emma and Franz phoned them, they had an answer service! But I couldnt find it!
So, no option. Head north, and pray!
I found a Super-U store near Bagnoles, the next big town. Went in there. They had innertubes! Woo hoo! Just not the size I wanted! Arghhh! So i got another repair kit and some breakfast. Not a good idea cycling 25km with no breakfast, but I had no choice!
I then continued on, and found a big Elecerec store. Wasnt sure what was in there, but went in on the off chance. Bingo!!! Tubes! OMG so happy about that!
So, four tubes packed and I'm off. Decided to just keep running on the patched tube until it gives out... Which is exactly what it did just 10km later! Replaced the tube with a new one. Also lost a screw out of my break leaver. So had to tye wrap that up to get it working again. I also did a temp fix on the rack. Im hoping it'll last out till Sunday.
It was then go go go. Heading north. Just like the last few days, endless farms and villages. Looking at the mileage, I was well back on schedule to reach Caen! Awesome! Never felt so happy. Also feeling good, loads of energy. Then came a huge climb. Biggest climb since Spain. But downhill was fun.
30km from the Ferry port and bags of time! Feeling great. Looming clouds werent going to dampen my spirits. Unfortunately by the time I reached the city of Caen, those looming clouds were an absolute rainstorm! France was going to throw one last hurdle at me. The rain was so bad, the GPS gave in, leaving me having to find my
own way. The blackberry trackball also started having problems because they were just getting wet, as I was trying to use them to navigate.
The rain got worse, I had to take shelter under a bridge for a while. Let it die off. Then was a 10km zoom down the hard shoulder of a very busy dual carriageway which wasnt fun heading out to Oustreham where the ferry port was. Got absolutely saturated in the process. That road wasnt nice.
But then, I saw it. The north coast of France, the sea and the boarding gates for the Ferry. I made it!!!
Not only did I make it, I was 3 hours early to even board the ferry. So had some food, and got this blog done now.
Done. I have now cycled the entire lengths of Spain and France! I have crossed the entire continent, on a pushbike, carrying my own luggage, unsupported. Tomorrow morning, I will roll off the Ferry in the UK. Hold the Champagne though. I have 3 gruelling days ahead. Its a spring to the finish line. Another 350km approx stands between Portsmouth and the finish. I have 2 and a half days to that in. Going to be some early starts. Cold and probably more wet weather. I will also have to adopt to cycling on the left. Although this is my 'native' side of the road so shouldnt be a problem.
The final leg of Gibraltar to Yorkshire, starts tomorrow!
| Todays stats | |
|---|---|
| Start | West of Javron-Les-Capellis.08:00 |
| End | Oustreham Ferry Port (Caen).18:30 |
| Saddle Time | 6 hr 33 min 31 sec. |
| Distance travelled | 139.08km |
| Average Speed | 19.9kph |
| Max speed | 64.1km |
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