Day 4- Arras to Trefcon- 73km

Finally!!! 7 hours of blissful solid sleep :) I have been suffering from pretty extreme jet lag since we got to London, getting in about 2-3 hours of sleep a night for the past 5 nights. On top of that I came down with a horrid head cold the day before we started towards Rome. So I've been riding 80km days three days in a row dosed up on drugs with a cold and no sleep. So I was pretty stoked this morning to wake up feeling refreshed and finally getting over this illness. Still a hacking cough, but I think it will be gone soon too.

On leaving our hotel in Arras this morning we were blessed with what can only be described as perfect riding conditions. Clear blue skies with not a cloud to be seen and lovely sunshine to make picture perfect vistas even more perfect. The route today between Arras and Peronne was incredible. Beautiful farm roads and tracks winding their way through agricultural land and gorgeous small towns with ridiculously beautiful mansions at every turn. Some crumbling, but others in spectacular condition. We were suprised at how many massive houses there were in such tiny villages.

Leaving Arras

Easy roads!

Our path today took us past a few WWI cemeteries which was very humbling. Reading the headstones and seeing the average age in the early 20's was very sad. I cant imagine what it must have been like to live in that time. The cemeteries are very beautiful. The gardens are kept immaculate with fresh cut grass and flowers and they are located in the middle of silent fields. Quite poignant.

Sunken Road Cemetary

 

 

Due to the wonderful condition of the tracks today we were making good time so took the day at a much easier pace, stopping at our first French cafe. I even managed to talk to the bar lady in passable French ;) she came outside afterwards and wanted to shake both our hands, which at first I found quite confusing, but she was just very friendly. It seems in the smaller towns that everyone wants to say hi to us and find out what we are doing and where we are going. Whoever propagated the myth that the French are rude needs a slap in the face.

First French cafe!

We did encounter a small bit of mud today, which was actually quite bad. There was no possible way around it. I made Ben go first so I could see how deep the water was and the best line to take. Good option as he almost stacked it :D I made it through unscathed, though my bike was clogged up with some of the thickest mud I've ever seen! We tried to get it off with some bunches of grass, riding through rocks, and riding through puddles, but the best cleaner was found further ahead when we encountered my nemesis the grass track. I hate riding on the grass tracks, but this time it was welcome as it acted like one of those drive through car washes, brushing down the sides of our bikes and wheels to get a bit more of the mud off. Just lucky this time it wasn't up a mega hill ;)

Mud pit of doom

 

Me no likey

 

Grass bike wash track

We made it to Peronne by midday with only 20km to go to our destination so we decided to have lunch in the square. Our first meal out as we just haven't had time so far! Today really feels like the start of our holiday for me. I feel a lot better, the riding is spectacular, and we have got into a rhythm where we are still making the distance but able to have a bit more break and enjoyment time. Lunch was great! We had a local beer, an entree of cold meats and rillette, for main Ben had steak with gorgonzola sauce with frites and I had some very tender pork fillets with a local cheese sauce and some bloody delicious garlic butter potatoes. Now we are talking! This was finished with a citron rhubarb tart and coffee. Then back on the bikes for the final 20km!

Beer!!!

 

Cheese is good

For the section from Peronne to Trefcon we had read that others had difficulty passing through mud in the forrest sections. We took the first section as it was not too long and managed to weave our way around the puddles, but decided to stick to the roads for the rest. Ben found a great route through some back roads with very little traffic. We are now in Trefcon staying at a gite which is like a B&B. It's a tiny town so we are taking the time for some R&R and Ben is doing some bike maintenance. His back wheel has become a little buckled and his rack is twisted a bit. We saw our first pilgrims today, we passed four in total, and there are another three staying here at the gite. I believe we are all going to have dinner together this evening so it should be a good night :) here's to another 7 hours sleep! Fingers crossed!

 

Bens token cat photo

 

 http://www.strava.com/activities/152226852

 

Day 3 - Wisques to Arras - 84kms

We woke with concern, overnight another storm passed through in the early hours with quite heavy rains. For breakfast the nuns had set aside some bread, instant coffee and port salut cheese for our early departure so that we could leave by 7:30am.
We rolled out to dry but cloudy sky's, and made quick work getting through to Therrouanne after a few navigation errors. The route seems to be diverted due to the road being closed. We stocked up in the supermarket with plenty of food for the day including cheese and croissants.

Ominous clouds looming

Thankful for the paved road

Not long after the light rain started, still with menacing heavy clouds above. Quite humid still we sweated in our lightweight rain jackets. We saw the offroad path in a few places but decided it best to avoid the mud, which was a good decision I think.

At one point we stopped to check directions riding off I could hear a loud noise from the rear of the bike, worried it was the rack or pannier hitting the tyre we stopped only to find something worse, sealant pissing out. Something had sliced right into a knob on the tyre. Moving the tyre around didn't work, so I held my finger on the slash hoping it would seal, still no good. Starting to panic I took the wheel off and shook the wheel off  and spun around, finally the stans did its job and sealed it up! Crisis averted. Riding another 1900k on tubes would be quite stressful!

So it was mostly backroads, still with plenty of traffic in places but at least the French are very courteous in their passing even if they do actually give you too much room. It seems to be normal for someone to pass a cyclist in the oncoming lane shared with an oncoming car! They simply move over as well, and 1.5-2m clear is what we get. Not complaining at all.

One of the many amazing chateau's

So we pushed through with a brief lunch stop with some heavier rain which we escaped on a football oval in the bleachers, it was the only undercover seat we could find!

Lunch banquet, cheese of the day some sort of goats cheese

Half time lunch break in the shelter

We arrived into Arras not as wet and cold as yesterday, but were keen to get into some accomodation. Which is proving a lot more expensive than we hoped, tonight we paid 86e for a fairly average hotel. Which is around $150aud, hopefully it balances out with some cheaper accom, quite a contrast from Spain where we often paid only 30euros a night.
The town is quite impressive with a huge centre of historical buildings many rebuilt as it was only 6k from the front line of fighting in world war 1 and the centre of a large attack in world war 2, and held by the British for a short period. The main centre includes two impressive squares of Flemish barouqe terraces.

Our hotel in the middle

Arras town hall

French pastries!

Belgium beers seem to be the go

Tomorrow we push further east into the more prosperous regions of france, heading for the Swiss border via the champagne region where we will spend 2nights with a rest day, tomorrow is only around 70k so looking forward to an easier day.

http://www.strava.com/activities/151805045

Day 2- Wissant to Wisques- 80km

The day started out on a high with one of my all time favourite "French cliches" coming to life. Ben was in at the hotel reception while I waited out on the main street of Wissant. I was people watching and saw a young boy holding two very large baguettes and trying to get on his bike and ride it one handed whilst holding the baguettes in his other. He tried and failed about three times and then dropped the baguettes on the ground, snapping them in half. He looked so despondant and didn't know what to do. I motioned for him to come over to me and then pointed at the rack on the back of my bike and then to the baguettes and the rack on the back of his bike. He seemed to understand so I held his bike for him while he strapped the baguettes onto the rack and then went off on his way with a "Merci!". No French from me, no English from him but I did my good deed for the day and finally the baguette bike came to life!

Leaving Wissant a little later than usual (9:30 as we stayed for hotel breakfast) we headed out on well marked trails under the sun. We followed the Via Francigena signs instead of our book as the route was so well signed all the way to Guines. The route was mostly dirt, and at times incredibly steep! But it took us past some old war bunkers and through some beautiful pastoral area with spectacular views (After we climbed up the mega hills).

The start of our day

 

 

 

From Guines the trail markers suddenly stopped and we were forced to return to the book and Bens GPS route. This took us through some amazing country backroads with zero cars, a spectacular climb and past some very cute French children yelling Allez Allez at us as we went past. The kids in france are far from shy and are very intrigued by our bikes loaded up. I get constant smiles, bonjours, and the occasional poke, yes one poked me! I only wish I knew more French so I could reply to them when they speak to me.

 

We stopped for lunch in Liques after buying a wheel of Camembert for 2 euros!!!! If only cheese was as cheap in Australia!

 

 

It was not long after Liques that our fortunes changed for the day. We became incredibly lost after Tourneham sur la hem and ended up doing a 10km loop through some of the rockiest, steepest fire roads we could find. Damnit. It's not a nice feeling when you realise you are back at somewhere you have already been...

We eventually found the route again and then came the grass. Riding on grass with a 30kg bike is tough work. Now try doing that in a storm. And getting lost again. We had noticed the sky starting to turn grey, then heard the thunder, then it started pissing down. Our original plan had been to get to Therouanne today but due to the extra km from getting lost and the storm we decided to call it quits at Wisques. 80 tough km all up, a big day on some very slow but rewarding trails.

Grass fields with a ruined Chapelle in the background

All smiles in the sun!

Yes this is a track!

Wisques is a VERY small town. It does not have a main street. There are two accommodation options, a monastery and a nunnery and both ask that you call in advance and book. So with no pre warning we rocked up at Abbaye Notre Damme wet, muddy, tired and very hungry. The beautiful nuns took us in and made accommodations to add us for dinner. They were so lovely and put up with my terrible attempts at French and helped with the English that they knew. We had a three course meal with red wine included and have a room in their guest quarters. I am now sitting in the garden listening to the church bells chime and thanking my lucky stars. The nuns assure me it was fate :) looking forward to tomorrow and the adventures it brings!

 

Abbaye Notre Damme

 

The guest quarters where we are staying

 http://www.strava.com/activities/151558469

Day 1 - London to Wissant

Today was the official start to our ride, we woke up bright and early still jet lagged, after a fabulous night out with Nyree and Carlo watching some comedy at a festival in south bank.

Today was to be quite a big day, only 70k planned cycling but it involved 3 legs with a train and ferry in between each making logistics hard to plan.

 

London Town from south bank

 

Big Ben and little Ben

 

We woke to another beautiful day in London, and made our way into the city via some back roads on quiet Sunday morning roads. It was great riding down Whitehall road past all the monuments and arriving at charing cross station. We made good time and grabbed some breakfast for the hour and a half train journey to Canterbury.

 

Ready to roll, nice and sunny at 7am

Ready to roll, nice and sunny at 7am

 

Quick photo out the front of Westminster abbey

 

Rolling through the streets of London

 

Bikes on the train

 

The train was fairly straight forward except for a few route changes due to people seen walking on the tracks!? which didn't affect us but were quite confusing! We arrived in Canterbury and checked out the cathedral which was the official starting point to our journey on the via francienga. The cathedral was amazing, but we couldn't go right inside unfortunately due to Sunday mass, but we checked out the cloister and the external building.

Canterbury cathedral

 

Canterbury cathedral

 

The nerd shot, this marks the official beginning of our trip

 

Official stone for the via francienga

 

We were keen to get moving to make sure we made the ferry in time, and we easily found our way out of town and onto top the route.

Into the route proper

Into the route proper

Taking to bumpy walking track

 

 

The trail got a bit overgrown in places

 

The walking trails were very scenic but got progressively overgrown and difficult to ride as we got out of Canterbury, we pressed on for probably a little too far and started to make very slow progress. Eventually arriving in shepherdswell we joined back to the main bike path to Dover which we kept to for the rest of the way, luckily as we arrived in dover with only 30mins to spare for the ferry, not knowing that getting onto the ferry involved quite a few steps in getting the tickets and passport control.

 

I

 

The ferry was great, much like any other ferry, and we took the chance to eat some lunch, and got in our fish and chips which was not too bad considering it was on the ferry. Chips and mushy peas have to be one of the best combinations that we never eat back in australia.

On the French Coast from Calais

Arriving in Calais we found the long weekend traffic and got stuck in the traffic jam, usually on a bike you can easily cut up the side but on fully loaded touring bikes it's not so easy! We got some euros in town but decided to get out of there ASAP as we would be taking the main road along to coast for 20k so getting out of there before the traffic starts going that way was a good idea.

The views were amazing the entire way, with rolling green hills along the coast line.

 

On the French Coast from Calais

On the French Coast from Calais

 

 

 

Arriving in Wissant we learnt it was super popular with french long weekenders and the town was packed, the place we hoped to stay couldn't store our bikes anywhere inside and could only suggest we lock them up on the street, which we were not happy with, most other places were booked out and it was getting quite late already, and we found another place which had room but it was there best room and the last one and they wanted an inflated price for the long weekend, we has no choice unless we kept going to the next town, it has great views at least, and we snuck the bikes into the room so nice and safe!
After a long day we didn't get into the hotel until around 8pm!
A quick walk around town and we found a huge queue for moules and frites which we couldn't resist! Washed down with a Belgium beer of course!

 

Dinner time!

Dinner time!

 

View from our hotel

 

http://www.strava.com/activities/151147163

All up it was a pretty successful day, some hard riding through the walking trails but some great scenery.

Tomorrow is a bit longer, but all riding. Rishi I suffering from jet lag still pretty bad and has only managed a few hours sleep each night, which is taking its toll. So hoping for a good solid nights sleep tonight!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The journey begins - Melbourne to London

Long haul flights are never fun, in fact they are mostly torture by cramming a few hundred people into a metal tin for 14hr stints, feeding you every 3hrs some sort of chicken or beef concoction.

The A380 was pretty much like most other planes I've been on, I am glad though that we were only 3 rows back from the front, exiting from the front doors when there are 480odd people on the plane is quite a procession. It was a great transit in the end with only a 2 hr stopover in Dubai to stretch the legs.

 

Bike wrapped and ready to box

Luggage ready for our flights

London!!

 

Anxious moments, they survived

 

Anxious moments, they survived

Arriving in at heathrow airport in London we decided at the last minute that instead of stuffing around trying to jump on the underground, we would assemble the bikes at the airport and ride into the city. We found a quiet corner and realised our first problem, our carry on luggage included nothing sharp obviously, and breaking open a well taped up box is not an easy task with your bare hands.

Anxious moments, they survived

Around an hour later we had the bikes assembled, and we were ready to go.

Anxious moments, they survived

Ready to roll

 

 

Heathrow airport has a bike tunnel!

I had mapped a garmin route to our accomodation in Earlsfield, which was actually really easy to navigate, mostly backroads filled with the famous London double decker buses which we constantly overtook and got overtaken by. 30k later we found our destination with Nyree and Carlo, in Earlsfield.

Heathrow airport has a bike tunnel!

Thankfully the weather turned it on for our arrival, with a clear sunny day at around 24degrees, which after two hours on the bike at midday Rishi even got burnt!

Heathrow airport has a bike tunnel!

We spent the rest of the day sorting out a tubeless setup on the bike, which turned into a bit of a ordeal with them not knowing whether the could fit it in, after much convincing on our end that it wasn't too hard to do, we hope it will be done by the next day.

Heathrow airport has a bike tunnel!

Sunburnt I the UK!

Two nights in London now with Nyree and Carlo, we will hopefully fit in a few things around the city today. After an excellent home cooked meal/feast last night by Nyree we got a solid first nights sleep, hopefully the body clock has ticked over.