Pyrenees 2006

Tuesday/Wednesday - The long ride home

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Next morning before breakfast, we had a quick walk down the road for cash, Gee keeps watch while Dave S raids the machine.

The band stand opposite the cash machine and bank, It must have taken a long time to get the trees looking like that!

08:32 After packing the bikes we shook hands with the proprietor of the Le Dahut and thanked  him for looking after us. All we had to do now was ride 500 miles to Caen. We fuelled up in Labouheyre and set off, it was cool again just 12C/53F. Once past Bordeaux I was off detailed mapping on my GPS, so it wouldn't auto route. I couldn't put fresh mapping on because the mapping wasn't unlocked on the laptop, that's the price you pay for running out of time at the beginning of the trip :( As pre arranged, I waved Dave to the lead and went to the back as tail end Charlie for the rest of the day.

11:00 Our first fuel stop at the Saint-Leger services with 115 miles travelled, the guy in the middle was a fellow traveller on a BMW 1200 Adventure

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12:56 Second fuel stop at Vendee Est services, with 219 miles travelled, we'd been through two heavy downpours, dried out twice, and now the sun was coming out (18.8C/65F)

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14:47 We took a wrong turn on the outskirts of Nantes (we came in bottom left on the D145 and wanted to be out top left on the N249). Dave's GPS tried to correct the error, but recent road changes meant it was now blocked, No problem, we just had to turn back and do it again. Twice more it rained heavily, twice more we dried out, I really wished I was on my 1100RT for this trip.

N47.22805 W1.46450 (map)

17:00 Fuel stop three, with 371 miles travelled. We all stopped on the hard shoulder of the A84, John said he needed fuel urgently or he'd be pushing his bike to Caen. Dave's GPS said there was fuel near La Chapelle-Saint-Aubert, 4 miles away off the motorway, so we took the next turn off and headed there. Luckily there was a filling station, and it was open.

N48.32176 W1.30710 (map)

18:13 Coffee stop at Aire Du Mont-Saint-Michel with 391 miles travelled. According to Dave's GPS it was only 80 miles now to Caen, so we could take a break without worry. Very nice quiche served here by the way - but the girl serving it was the most ignorant and surly I've ever come across, she needed a damn good slap!

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19:49 Caen, we'd finally arrived. 475 miles in 11hrs 16mins certainly no record and we were all exhausted. there were a few other refugees from Santander, but not many yet. All we had to do now was book in and wait for the ferry, it was due to depart at 23:30, arriving in Britain around 06:30.

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Just as it was getting dark I was dragged out of reception to look at an old car, but what a car! The owner of this completely original Bugatti wasn't a rich guy. Buying it had been a life long ambition leaving him now rather skint, He'd driven it down to Monte Carlo where it had proved very popular with the locals, now he was on his way home again.

23:10 We're loading on to the ferry, the bikes were tied down in quite a narrow passageway and we made our way to the bar for a last drink before bed.

Tuesday's route in yellow, Labouheyre to Caen with 475 miles travelled.

Tuesday's temperature graph, representing 11:15hrs travelling time. The four dips below 15C is when it rained

Tomorrow, we still had to ride home, for me 250 miles, for Gee and John 300 miles. I just hoped it would be dry, but it didn't seem likely as my wife had said earlier on the phone: "it hasn't stopped raining for a week" :(

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Wednesday

05:30 The cabin radio comes on softly to wake you up, I'm sure I could have slept till noon. We didn't bother with breakfast but made our separate ways down on to the car deck and unfasten the bikes.

07:20 When the boat doors opened we rode out in to... heavy rain <sigh> I hadn't mapping on the GPS for this area, but led off on to the M27 for Southampton (we should have been on the A3, but that's hindsight for you). I certainly wasn't prepared for the traffic, after the quiet roads of Spain and France, it came as quite some shock. Correcting my navigational error in Southampton, we rode on to the M3. After a quick coffee in Fleet services, we rejoined the M3 and made our way around the M25 before finally picking up the A1, 'The Great North Road'. For me it was a goal reached, we were nearly home.

But what trip would be complete for our band of 'Road Warriors' without a visit to the Little Chef on the way home. John had some 'two for one' vouchers so we had two reasons to dive in :)

So that 's five teas and Olympic breakfasts please miss!

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The last map, Portsmouth to York, 269 miles in 7h27mins, average speed 40mph

And the last temperature graph, see that massive dip in the middle? that was just as we rode on to the A1, ahead I could see a huge thunder head and the temperature dropped like a stone, and did it rain!

Trip statistics from the Garmin 276c GPS

Total mileage travelled     2772 miles

Moving average speed    47 mph

Moving time                       58.57hrs

Awards

Best Hotel:                        The Pessets Hotel, Sort

Worst Hotel:                      Sorry, I'm just not goner say

Best meal:                         The Bruxelles Hotel, Soldeu

Best day:                           Wednesday, the ride through to Tossa

Worst moment:                 "Can you go to reception please, your ferry's cancelled"

Last thoughts.

Writing this epic some months after the event brought back many happy memories that the last two days travelling had originally 'wiped out', It reminded me of the great roads in both Spain and France we rode, and the companionship of good friends riding together, for us it was a great adventure. As for the 1200GS, that was returned to Helphire a few days later after I'd stripped all my stuff off, and in July I bought a new R1200RT. After five months my simple claim is still not fully resolved by Grouparma Insurance due to their inability to do anything unless prompted by me.

Insurance claim update 9th January 2007

I rang Grouparma today to see how my insurance claim was going, seems Grouparma finally recovered all their losses form Norwich Union on the 29th November 2006 thereby reinstating my no claims, but nobody bothered to tell me!

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