I should mention at this point that Adrian and I discussed over dinner the option of setting ourselves a bit of a challenge in the style of Top Gear. As I mentioned earlier the other 2 chaps, Ian and Mark were now riding through Spain en route to Santander to catch the ferry to Plymouth on Wed evening. Adrian and I were currently planning to catch the Chunnel on Friday evening. Now it was Tuesday evening, we were in Pau just north of the French/Spain border so we had 3 full days of riding to get to Calais...
I set out the challenge:
We ride north without using any toll roads or motorways and get home before the other two.... This now gave us 2 full days riding in order to beat them....
Glasses raised and the challenge was set....
The following morning we set off early, wheels rolling around 0700. We both had dodgy stomachs, either from the mushrooms on the steak or the wine. My money was on the shrooms but there was some irony in the fact we'd just ridden from 5 days eating all sorts in North Africa and the world decided to fall out of our arses in France.....
Anyway i digress, the weather was nice, clear skies but the temperature remained cool so base layers and fleece were the order of the day.
The route was simple, pick up the road to Tarbes and from there the N21 to Limoges then on to the N147 up to Poitier, N10 to Tours and finally the D766 up to Lemans.. We figured that if we could get to Le Mans today (Wed) then we should be able to make reasonable time to Calais tomorrow. It would be challenging but achievable
....
Anyone who knows southern France well will know the N21, what a road, single carriageway, twisties, hairpins for miles and miles. Fantastic road with plenty of opportunity to make progress. Again. i only wished i wasn't on TKCs...
Anyway, apologies to those of you who don't enjoy video. There's more of it now and less pictures as we spent more time riding and less time taking photos.....
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After a long day in the saddle we finally reached Le Mans, pulled into the first hotel we could find only to be told it was fully booked. We were also told that all the hotels in Le Mans would be booked due to the GP taking place that weekend!!! Not to be outdone we headed off again, no plan this time just head north until we come to the next town and find a hotel. The sun was now going down, we both only had dark visors and the temperature was dropping. We'd been riding for the best part of 14-15 hours and were knackered. I looked for the nearest hotel in the Zumo which told me it was in a town called Mamers some 25kms north of Le Mans so that's where we were headed...
When we arrived the town was almost empty, there was no-one around. The streets were empty, there were no cars on the roads and everywhere seemed closed. We pulled up outside what was supposed to be the hotel and clearly it had been a hotel at some point, although now it was in a state of disrepair and clearly not operating... We got back on the bikes and headed into the town square to see what was about.
By now it was almost dark (around 21:30) and we were tired, hungry and cold. In the corner of the square we saw a pizza restaurant called Giovanni and above the window i saw a sign - Chambre D'hote and thought, why not? I walked in and asked the young girl in my best broken French whether they had a room for the night. I got a broken French reply advising that yes they probably do. The young lady went away and came back a few moments later with her mother who advised in perfect English that they did have a room but only one with a double bed!!! Before I had a chance to respond Adrian jumped in claiming that would be fine. We locked the bikes on the pavement outside the restaurant and were shown to our room. As it turned out the family who owned the restaurant were English and moved out to France some 17 years ago. They couldn't have been more helpful and soon after were shown to the room we had 2 pizzas and 4 bottles of beer delivered. I have to say that was probably the best pizza I've had for a long time.....
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_...-Giovanni-Mamers_Sarthe_Pays_de_la_Loire.html
http://
http://
As you can see from the pics the room was lovely, private bathroom and beautifully presented, only downside was that I had to share it with the big fella whose snoring had now moved into another dimension.....
The following morning we had a typical French breakfast of fresh bread and croissants before setting off. The final push was made all the easier as we'd covered loads of ground the previous day. The Zumo was advising that we'd be in Calais by 12:30 so we were fairly confident we'd make it home before the others. We left Mamers and headed north towards Rouen and in no time at all found ourselves entering the chunnel for check-in. Remember, I already had a ticket booked for the Friday 18:00 crossing and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. They transferred my ticket with no issues free of charge. It was now 13:30 and the train left in 20 minutes. All week I had reminded the big fella to get his ticket booked and all week he didn't so 20 mins later and 110 Euros down we were ready to board....
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14271939794" title="IMG_4112 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5198/14271939794_37df75beba_o.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4112"></a>
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14016660889" title="IMG_4151 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5314/14016660889_90fa1ae580_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4151"></a>
We arrived back on British soil around 1430 (with the time change) and then tackled the M25. It was shit!!! after all the riding we'd done the M25 was a real reality check, it came to a standstill so we filtered but after a few miles i'd had enough so we came off at Chertsey and followed the back roads to get me home. When I arrived outside the flat i could hear Khoda going mad inside and when she finally came down i was given a lovely greeting from her...
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14016695770" title="IMG_4150 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915/14016695770_77faf06b40_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4150"></a>
It was great to be home, I took the roll bag off the bike and put it in the garage and didn't even look at it for a couple of days.
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14292551313" title="IMG_4132 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3732/14292551313_c4a8a1d9d7_o.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="IMG_4132"></a>
I soon received a text from Mark (around 16:00) advising that they were just coming into port at Plymouth and asking us if we were having fun? I responded by telling him I was having a nice cup of tea with Erika and Khoda and that i got home 40 minutes ago. Only response i got back was - f*****s!!!!!
Anyway after a few days i couldn't wait any more, I had to get her out, take the panniers and racks off and get her back to looking good.....
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14272372795" title="IMG_4183 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3728/14272372795_844ae1a64d_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4183"></a>
Karma restored.......
Big thanks to Mark for all the planning, Tim Cullis for the routes in Morocco, Adrian for his company back through France (but not the snoring) and Ian for his knowledge sharing and world riding experience.....
Looking forward to the next one already
I set out the challenge:
We ride north without using any toll roads or motorways and get home before the other two.... This now gave us 2 full days riding in order to beat them....
Glasses raised and the challenge was set....
The following morning we set off early, wheels rolling around 0700. We both had dodgy stomachs, either from the mushrooms on the steak or the wine. My money was on the shrooms but there was some irony in the fact we'd just ridden from 5 days eating all sorts in North Africa and the world decided to fall out of our arses in France.....
Anyway i digress, the weather was nice, clear skies but the temperature remained cool so base layers and fleece were the order of the day.
The route was simple, pick up the road to Tarbes and from there the N21 to Limoges then on to the N147 up to Poitier, N10 to Tours and finally the D766 up to Lemans.. We figured that if we could get to Le Mans today (Wed) then we should be able to make reasonable time to Calais tomorrow. It would be challenging but achievable
....Anyone who knows southern France well will know the N21, what a road, single carriageway, twisties, hairpins for miles and miles. Fantastic road with plenty of opportunity to make progress. Again. i only wished i wasn't on TKCs...
Anyway, apologies to those of you who don't enjoy video. There's more of it now and less pictures as we spent more time riding and less time taking photos.....
http://<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="400" height="225" data="https://www.flickr.com/apps/video/stewart.swf" classid="clsid<img src=" images="" smilies="" biggrin.gif"="" border="0" alt="" title="Big Grin" smilieid="4" class="inlineimg">27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000">
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After a long day in the saddle we finally reached Le Mans, pulled into the first hotel we could find only to be told it was fully booked. We were also told that all the hotels in Le Mans would be booked due to the GP taking place that weekend!!! Not to be outdone we headed off again, no plan this time just head north until we come to the next town and find a hotel. The sun was now going down, we both only had dark visors and the temperature was dropping. We'd been riding for the best part of 14-15 hours and were knackered. I looked for the nearest hotel in the Zumo which told me it was in a town called Mamers some 25kms north of Le Mans so that's where we were headed...
When we arrived the town was almost empty, there was no-one around. The streets were empty, there were no cars on the roads and everywhere seemed closed. We pulled up outside what was supposed to be the hotel and clearly it had been a hotel at some point, although now it was in a state of disrepair and clearly not operating... We got back on the bikes and headed into the town square to see what was about.
By now it was almost dark (around 21:30) and we were tired, hungry and cold. In the corner of the square we saw a pizza restaurant called Giovanni and above the window i saw a sign - Chambre D'hote and thought, why not? I walked in and asked the young girl in my best broken French whether they had a room for the night. I got a broken French reply advising that yes they probably do. The young lady went away and came back a few moments later with her mother who advised in perfect English that they did have a room but only one with a double bed!!! Before I had a chance to respond Adrian jumped in claiming that would be fine. We locked the bikes on the pavement outside the restaurant and were shown to our room. As it turned out the family who owned the restaurant were English and moved out to France some 17 years ago. They couldn't have been more helpful and soon after were shown to the room we had 2 pizzas and 4 bottles of beer delivered. I have to say that was probably the best pizza I've had for a long time.....
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Hotel_...-Giovanni-Mamers_Sarthe_Pays_de_la_Loire.html
http://
http://
As you can see from the pics the room was lovely, private bathroom and beautifully presented, only downside was that I had to share it with the big fella whose snoring had now moved into another dimension.....
The following morning we had a typical French breakfast of fresh bread and croissants before setting off. The final push was made all the easier as we'd covered loads of ground the previous day. The Zumo was advising that we'd be in Calais by 12:30 so we were fairly confident we'd make it home before the others. We left Mamers and headed north towards Rouen and in no time at all found ourselves entering the chunnel for check-in. Remember, I already had a ticket booked for the Friday 18:00 crossing and the staff couldn't have been more helpful. They transferred my ticket with no issues free of charge. It was now 13:30 and the train left in 20 minutes. All week I had reminded the big fella to get his ticket booked and all week he didn't so 20 mins later and 110 Euros down we were ready to board....
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14271939794" title="IMG_4112 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5198/14271939794_37df75beba_o.jpg" width="1024" height="768" alt="IMG_4112"></a>
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14016660889" title="IMG_4151 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm6.staticflickr.com/5314/14016660889_90fa1ae580_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4151"></a>
We arrived back on British soil around 1430 (with the time change) and then tackled the M25. It was shit!!! after all the riding we'd done the M25 was a real reality check, it came to a standstill so we filtered but after a few miles i'd had enough so we came off at Chertsey and followed the back roads to get me home. When I arrived outside the flat i could hear Khoda going mad inside and when she finally came down i was given a lovely greeting from her...
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14016695770" title="IMG_4150 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2915/14016695770_77faf06b40_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4150"></a>
It was great to be home, I took the roll bag off the bike and put it in the garage and didn't even look at it for a couple of days.
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14292551313" title="IMG_4132 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3732/14292551313_c4a8a1d9d7_o.jpg" width="768" height="1024" alt="IMG_4132"></a>
I soon received a text from Mark (around 16:00) advising that they were just coming into port at Plymouth and asking us if we were having fun? I responded by telling him I was having a nice cup of tea with Erika and Khoda and that i got home 40 minutes ago
. Only response i got back was - f*****s!!!!!Anyway after a few days i couldn't wait any more, I had to get her out, take the panniers and racks off and get her back to looking good.....
http://<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/77911971@N06/14272372795" title="IMG_4183 by Chris Needham, on Flickr"><img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3728/14272372795_844ae1a64d_o.jpg" width="1024" height="1024" alt="IMG_4183"></a>
Karma restored.......
Big thanks to Mark for all the planning, Tim Cullis for the routes in Morocco, Adrian for his company back through France (but not the snoring) and Ian for his knowledge sharing and world riding experience.....
Looking forward to the next one already
I thoroughly enjoyed that.
