We eventually managed to get to Dover yesterday, it was beginning to get dark by the time we got there and we feared that we had almost entered into Norfolk trip territory only this time we wouldn’t have a car of friends to help navigate for us. It may have been luck (we were due some at this point) but once we got to Dover it was actually very easy to find our B&B, we got settled in and found a Wetherspoons for food. We woke up at 05:40 to what I hoped would be a fairly straight forward pack-up, eat and catch a ferry but turned out to be more of a Gen felt ill so Gary ate breakfast in between fueling both bikes kinda deal, eventually leaving with only 5 minutes to find and catch our ferry, nothing like a good bit of prep work…
The ferry was a new experience to both of us that somehow felt… normal, I guess I’ve seen pictures, heard stories and read articles about what it’s like so I knew what to expect. The crossing itself was very choppy, I was quite proud of my old sea legs, they kept me the right colour for once, pity I can’t say the same for some of the other passengers! As we left the ferry I started getting a bit nervous about the road rules over here so decided to stay close to a car in front so I could copy what they were doing which seemed to work well until I realised we missed the roundabout exit for the D940; a road I had previously researched to use to get us going. Unfortunately this was to be the first of many mistakes our Garynav system would make today…
After riding through rain, more rain, some wind and a lot more wind (that bloody wind, grr), I’m currently using Wi-Fi from our hotel room. We’re in a 38 Euro Premiere Classe hotel room in St Etienne du Rouvray (just outside Rouen) and we’ve just got back from eating our first French meal. I’m not sure I’m a fan of the language barrier style of communication anymore; ordering was an interesting experience which ended up with a pretty forced selection of the house specialty! We met a nice British couple in the restaurant who had just sold their French home and were taking all their furniture back to the UK. The man we were talking to used to get drunk with a guy who worked on the BBC Micro and another guy who worked with Sinclair (Alan Sinclair I think he said?) so nerdy chat ensued!
Cumulative Miles: 389.3