What a terrible night’s sleep ! I remember every minute until 12am then every minute from 3am onwards. At least I got three hours.
The culprit was a guy who was an absolute snoring machine. It wasn’t high quality, but it was consistent, persistent and loud enough to disturb everyone in the dorm.
The result was that I got up, packed and hit the road by 8am. But only as far as the nearest boulangerie of course I grabbed some croissant and coffee and walked down to the water to have them.
There’s lots of homeless people about and many of the benches had people sleeping on them. It was quite cool too. In fact the last couple of nights have been cold, and rain has never been far away. As I get closer to England, the weather gets worse. Go figure.
There was a climb out of Boulogne sur mer but the view was lovely so it didn’t hurt so much. I’d done most of this ride in reverse on my first cycling day in Europe last year on April 10. Back then it was cold and windy and rainy squalls drifted in over the last part – the hilliest section.
I remembered most of it but today it was quite beautiful in the sunshine. I was never far from the coast but lots of the route was rural. It was all on the EV4 too. Last year, I thought that all Eurovelo routes were off road and was disappointed. This year, I was very happy with the route.
There was one long uphill climb and three roadies my age sat about 100m back, but as I near the top, the first of them accelerated to get in front of me. He said Bonjour etc as he went past. The next guy looked like he was struggling, so I went just a bit faster to make him earn it. When he went past, I said Bonjour but he was unable to speak there’s clearly some competitiveness in me still. The third guy tried but couldn’t bridge the gap. Pretty pathetic on all three really. I’m probably lugging 15-20kgs more than them. I was happy to rest on the downhill though.
The rest of the ride was up and down through the farmland before a great descent to the coastal plain and a quick (tailwind assisted) run into Calais.
I sat on a bench for my baguette, and some old ladies sat on the other end. Our view was the beach and the tiny beach shacks arranged in lines. Unfortunately, our view also included in the foreground, an old man relieving himself on one of the beach shacks. We all tried to ignore him, but seriously.
Reaching Calais felt like the end of the ride but I had about 15kms to go. I’d also run out of data on my phone. Not happy – I was halfway through the day’s “People, Medals and Cheese”, the Olympics show from Roy and HG.
Luckily, my GPS knew the way to the campground. This was my third time through Calais and each time, I see a different side of it. It’s surprisingly nice for what it is nowadays.
The last part was flat and easy but boring and as I neared my destination, I wondered if it was going to be ok. I shouldn’t have worried. The campsite is great. It’s in a small village but it has a restaurant.l, so I don’t have to go anywhere until I leave in the morning. And that is just perfect, judging by how I feel – tired and sleepy.
I slowly pitched the tent not before the bike stand fell on one toe. It was excruciating and the other campers were given an advanced lesson in subtle english expletives.
I met Julian from Germany who is riding to London – another great guy – bike tourers all are. Then I grabbed a coffee at the restaurant before a very warm sleep in my tent
I simply couldn’t stay awake. I cursed last night’s snorer and caught some z’s.