Gibraltar Trip - DAY 8 - 22/09/07 ) St Malo to home

slept quite well on the li-lo all things considered, it was a bit short but did the job. The bin lorry came round at 6.30 am to collect from the re-cycle bin area at the shower block ... which was nice . We got up at 7.00am and were packed and ready at 8.45am.

It was only 5 miles to the ferry terminal and we were there at 9.00am. We got seperated on the entrance to the port area so the radio's came in handy again and we were shown to the front of a queue between the returning campervans etc. I took the oportunity to reset my watch and bike clock

A few pics of the port area.




The Ferry .. the clouds look ominous.

We boarded at 10.30 am and after sorting out our bikes we set up camp in the rugby salon , which was the room with the reclining night seats we had kipped on on the way down.

By now we were starving not having eaten since yesterday afternoon so we had a massive breakfast . I had 1 croissant / 1 pain au chocolat / 1 brew / 1 o-juice / 2 small rolls and butter and 1pkt 6 biscuits ( 3 to Neil ) Man I was hungry.

Last few photos as we left.

We repaired to our luxury recliners and read the papers. ( Bloody hell .. just read jose mourino has been sacked ! ) Neil bedded down as usual and crashed on the floor. He's great company ;)

He surfaced for lunch which from memory was croq monseur.

The crossing was slow so I watched a film 'Children of Men' on my Archos to pass the time and went up on deck to watch Jersey go by.

Approaching Blighty !

Portsmouth Harbour - Still very much a naval port

I don't remember the name of this ship but Mr memory will be along in a minute

Just visible is HMS Victory , she's also been to Gibraltar.

A small waving crowd gathered on the bastion.... they must have heard we were on our way back.

There is some serious kit moored up here.

Soon enough we got the call to disembark at 7.15pm and after a bit of inter-deck shuffling we found the bikes.

Looking a bit grisly having gone ferrel for the trip

Eventually we got off the boat at 7.45 pm and headed for customs.

The couple in front of me got pissed off because the officious official made them take their helmets off to check their faces against passports. Luckily we both had our flip fronts so we sailed through.

Another officious official wouldn't let us stop within the port property so we had to ride a mile or so into a trading estate to sort out our radios etc ( I hadn't had time to glove up )


Spotted this famous face moonlighting as a truck drivers mate.

We set off and Neil entered the motorway like a bat out of hell and shot between 2 cars missing by inches ! We still had what would have been a pretty long day in the saddle in normal circumstances so I had to come on all grown up and tell him to calm down. I know that most accidents happen on the last day so I took point for the ride home. Then again I hadn't been without a wife for 8 days so I can't blame him! I felt vindicated by the fact we saw 3 cop cars with victims in the first half hour !

We had over 200 miles of darkness to ride.

We stopped for fuel at 8.30 pm at Sutton Scotney ( nr winchester ) and we were getting used to riding on the right side of the road again.

We stopped again at Hilton Services and we got a hot sandwich as it was getting pretty cold by now. Nearly home.

We finally arrived at Neils house at Middlewich at 10.30 pm. I hung around outside so Neil could attend to his husbandly duties. I could hear the dogs howling their heads off when he went in. A couple of the neighbours heard the bikes and came out to say well done. Which was kind and appreciated.

Back home safe. Praiiise de lowwd.

"I've been to Gibraltar I have." ( Pleased with meself )

We had a brew and a chin wag and I buggered of home getting Rosa' locked up at 12.30am.

Not bad considering neither of us had ridden abroad before. No disasters , all obstacles overcome and home safe. What a great first euro-ride. Despite the temperatures / torrential rain / video-game night rides and huge mileages we never had a crossed word and had a great laugh all the way. I tend to be a loner by nature but it is a priviledge to have a best mate and riding partner like Neil. Nice one Chief, Now ... where to next year ?

Mileage for the day 230 - 2 hours 45 minutes of riding.

Total mileage from Home to Home - 3557

De-brief and take stock of kit to follow on the next post and an update on monies raised to Cancer research

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Gibraltar Trip - DAY 8 - 21/09/07 Perigueux to St Malo

We got up at 8.00 ish and went down for some petit dejeuner at 8.40 . Slept really well, I didn't notice until this morning that the beds were that Tempur memory foam stuff, fantastic stuff. The food was really good here and there was loads of it. Neil took advantage of the cheese and ham .....for breakfast! it's not right is it ??

The square in daylight .. not quite as intimidating as nightime and without the gentle waft of shite. The sun was coming out but it was a bit nippy.

The Regina , traditional french hotel and good value. The bar manager was probably early thirties and really helpfull. Neil had the crack about the French calling us " ros biff's " but he'll tell you about that.

Le Charantes This was the restaurant/bar that let us store the bikes overnight.


We went round to "Le Bastille" to free the bikes.


Hey Neil , they're still in here !


The couple of old fellers who gave us a lift were great . No English but they helped manhandle Rosa' in and out of a tight space . We really appreciated the effort for two total strangers. I don't think I would have slept well if we had left them in what is now know as " Shit alley "

We packed up and left at 10.00am and got cracking . The last full day's riding in Europe !

We set of on the E-606 heading for Niort - Nantes - Rennes.

Somewhere along here ( about 70 miles out of Perigueux ) at 12.30pm we stopped for an ear rest ( My helmet was slowly causing pressure on my ear gristle and was bloody painful. ) We pulled into a grassy wooded picnic area with some toilets. These were our first continental 'squat' toilets.... oh dear.... lets not go there.

Parked up was a catering trailer and a mini-moke type Citroen. We were hoping we might get some chips ( frites ) but the owner just pissed about doing nothing so we went without.

Anyway , as appears to be the way with any spare land, there was shite all over the place so it wasn't the best picnic spot I've been to.

We cracked on and stopped again at 2.50pm as Neil was feeling drowsy on the bike . We parked up next to some loos ( proper ones this time ) and Neil crashed out with the after effects of lunch.

Proof of neils comatose state, it must have been the sound gently flushing water from the shitehouse .

I hung around and amused myself with my camera self timer, by striking a heroic bike adventurer pose .

Neil stirred himself and we cracked on at 4.00pm and fueled up at 4.30pm near Nantes.

Not much happened for the rest of the ride , on the E03 Rennes and into St Malo. ( The reverse of the first day down )

We had a bit of messing around looking for the campsite . Maybe subconciously we didn't want to find it after our recent hotel luxuries. Anyway we soon landed at the site at 7.00pm ....

We were shown to our pitch by a right character from the site . I think he was the son of the elderley owners.

As soon as we parked up Neil high-tailed it back to the bar and necked a couple of Bier's.

Last night under canvas

The mural building was the wash-house and loos. As usual I had a comedy time in the shower block. The lights were on a passive infra-red sensor and turned themselves off. To add to the merriment they were communal & unisex ! I got into a tiny cubicle the size of a phone box and as I just got undressed the lights went out ! So I had to open the door run out in to the room , ( starkers! ) and wave my arms about for the lights to come back on. I got back into the cubicle
turned the tap and nothing !!! , I waited a minute and messed with the taps , still nothing...then the lights went out again ! So back out into the room with more arm waving, hoping no French Granny decided she needed a wash.

With the lights back on I spotted why there was no water, the bloody pipework wasn't connected ! I was so pissed off I just got dressed had a face wash in one of the hand basins and thrashed about in the tent with a pack of wet wipes.

Once we had both freshened up we went down to the cafe / bar . This was a family run site and it looked like the whole family were in there seated a large table all having a meal together. The Rugby World cup was on and there was a really nice relaxed atmosphere. There was no grub available ( we were right at the end of the season ) It was torture to watch the family scoff a massive table of homecooked food whilst we made do with our drinks. They didn't even sell nuts or crisps behind the bar !

It had dropped quite cold so we crashed out in the tents , Me on the cheepo Gibraltar Lilo!

Mileage for the day 366 - 9 hours of riding. ( 3300 miles to date )

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Gibraltar Trip - DAY 7 - 20/09/07 Beziers to Périgueux

Start Mileage - 51303

Suprisingly, I slept really well in my ' Tap-up ' bunk bed. One of the advantages of Biking is you always have earplugs with you so I didn't hear what must have been a lot of room shuffling and door slamming in the night. Luckily for Neil I didn't have to get up in the night to "ease springs ". We got up at 9.00am and went down to see what the crack was with brekky. Our petit dejeuner was in a self service area so we had a pile of grub ( cereal / toast / O-J / croissants / cheese etc. ) and a couple of brews.

We were outside after the usual kit relay by 10.15am and started packing on and set off at 10.45. Weather still fantastic , we've been really lucky so far.

( The re-schedule was paying off and hotels were making life a bit easier although it felt a bit like cheating, but then we weren't on SAS selection so no point killing ourselves.)

We left Beziers on the E-11 heading towards one of my 'must do' destinations - Millau Bridge.

Some random views on the way.

We crossed over the Monpellier range where the mountain roads were fantastic. On the way up we came accross another wind turbine blade with a police escort. Fair play , they waved to us as we passed.






We stopped for fuel at 12.00pm, right on top of the mountain range. This castle / church job was right next to the service station.

I missed the bulk of this sign in a field..whatever it was the answer is " non-non "


As we approached Milau the roads up were the maddest hairpins you can imagine for a motorway. They knock spots off our boring M6 and the like.

I have wanted to ride over the Milau Bridge ever since I had watched a documentary on the construction and its designer, Sir Norman Foster ... a Mancunian no less. It was started in 2002 and completed in 2005.


Construction of one of the towers.

This construction pic makes the bridge look curved but it's actually dead straight, it's just the curvature of the lens when stitching together the photos.

Sat pic.

I must admit it was an awesome site as we approached.

I grabbed the camera and got a shaky crossing of the bridge . Man it's high up there !

Just after we crossed the bridge there is a service / information area we pulled into. I got a german couple to take a photo .

The service area is partly built into an old farm building . Some of it is obviously dilapadated.

The service area from the pathway that leads up a hill. The path gets you slightly above the bridge road level. Neil is down there minding the bikes.

And checking out a UK Lotus club out for a spin.

The walk up the hairpin path was bloody hard work in this weather, but it was worth it for the view.

This is the reason for the bridge... previously all traffic came down, through and back out of the valley via the small town of Millau. The town folks were pissed off with all the traffic and wanted a bridge. Now tens of thousands of people a year come to visit and see the bridge ... DOH !!

The pathway at the top ends in a stone circular viewing area. Again I got an old couple to take a photo , they had a right row as the bloke kept trying to show the old bird how to use my camera but she didn't do badly considering I had to show her by sign language.

Back down in the visitors centre I bought a commemorative fridge magnet ( to go with the Gib' one ) for a family collector and had a butchers at the bridge info centre. Here they display the original models submitted by the architects.

I went back to the bike and Neil had a mooch round. We were there about an hour or so and decided to go down the valley and right under the bridge supports.

Neil, great screensaver.

This is actually my screensaver.

Yours truly.

The bikes dwarfed

Under the bridge there is multi-media visitor centre where we hoped to get a drink but there was nothing there , only souvenirs and shit. There was a bunch of cyclist there having a break; some were American now I remember; and we asked one to take our picture. Being a yanks and stupid he pressed the movie function and took a 5 second video . I managed to capture a poor quality still from it though. The bridge is so high up you can barely hear the traffic .

Anyway we had spent over couple of hours there and we pressed on and left at 2.50pm.

Leaving Millau heading for Rodez.

We stopped in Rodez at a fuel station and had a 15 minute break to check maps etc. By now I was starving so went into the shop for some drinks and bought these rissoles aux pruneaux pastie shaped things, not really knowing what they were.

It turns out they were Prunes in sweet pastry and they were reet nice. We left Rodez at 4.30pm and stopped for fuel again in Gremat further on up the N140.

Riding through La Dordogne we had a river to our left which must have led to Willy Wonkas chocolate factory. It was the brownest water I have ever seen.

The roads here are fantastic , really flowing and fast ( slowing for the vilages of course ) but with hardly any traffic.

As we approached the A20 junction just North of La Geneste there was a toll station and as we pulled in I could smell a hot / burning smell that felt bad. We pulled over through the toll and I had a sniff about and found the oil to be very low. So got the litre bottle and tiny funnel I had been carrying and topped up with half a litre.

I let the motor cool for 15 minutes and also found the starter motor cover loose so gave that a fettle. Neil took the piss mercilessly saying I loved having a bit of drama so I could justify all my kit. Not strictly true but it was nice to know it was there if needed. We set off again at 7.15 pm

There was a section of the auto-route not completed between Mansac ( yes really ! ) and Muguet so we had to come off onto smaller roads which slowed us down. We had a camp site earmarked from our Gib' list but they hadn't been that reliable so we wimped out and came into a town called Perrigueux at 8.40pm. By this time the temperature had dropped and the last hour or so was pretty cold.

The town looked lovely from what we saw in the dark , exactly what you would think a French town would be, Medieval buildings on the riverfront etc. We found and IBIS hotel but they were full. They directed us throught the town to anothet " tap up " Tastefully decorated as usual.

We parked up and the chief interpreter went in .



Guess what .. they were full . They directed us down to a square with a train station in the arab quarter that had a hotel they recommended.

9.30pm
Again Neil went in, did the biz and checked they had a room . The hotel manager told us to take our bikes down the side of the hotel to a gravel parking area that was used by a local car hire place. This was pitch dark and he reckoned the bikes would be out of site and it was safe. We parked them back to back and while I pissed about unloading Neil went back to sort payment etc.

Now.... I had a head torch on and started to unpack my gear when I nearly trod in some shite, as I moved about the area I noticed loads of it , and more worryingly it wasn't the local stray dogs either. Unless the sophisticated French poodles have started to wipe their own arses with toilet paper! I started to feel uncomfortable with this as although it was out of view from the road somebody was coming around here at night and I doubt they were squating down in the day.


Anyway we locked them together put our bike covers on ( we bought these and carried them for just this sort of thing ) and did the bike luggage shuffle into the hotel.

The bikes locked up and covered.

We carted our gear up to the second floor room in the lift ( which we overloaded as we have taken absolutely everything off the bikes )

Our room , and only about a tenner more that a tent pitch each.






The view out into the square with the train station opposite. We had a discussion about leaving the bikes locked and covered right down in the square in front of the station as at least they would be in full view if anyone wanted to mess with them , the downside being they would be in full view of everyone . Catch 22.


We got ourselves in and went down to the bar for a drink. I was still uncomfortable with the parking so we spoke to the bar manager, after a bit of cajoling he called a bar owner 3 doors down who had a lockup down the back of his resteraunt. We went round to have a look abd it was perfect . So we grabbed the bikes and squeezed them in for the night .

We went back and sat in the bar ,I had a couple of cokes and Neil put away a quick succesion of bier's . In the end I went up for a shower whilst Neil stayed to practice his inspector clouseau accent . Dirty stop out !

We crashed out at 12.15 am

Total mileage 311 - 10 hours, 45 mins of riding


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