Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: travel blog

Day 5 Something has to go!

Something has to go on this mega bike trip. It’s either or:-

  • The Panniers
  • The Viewranger app
  • or me
IMG_3199
To think the Tour de France rode on these!

Today, Fresnes Les Montauban – Le Cateau-Cambresi was really tough even though it was a fine day weather wise, my carefully planned Viewranger route was rubbish, no way of telling if the ‘road’ is a track, what the distance is, what the village name is etc etc. I ended up with the artics again plus riding through endless  cafe less villages but all well endowed with Aldi & Lidl’s 🙁

I have ended up at Le Cateau-Cambresi birthplace of Matisse, although what he would make of mega combines & tractors, I’m not sure. The hotel & restaurant Des Digues is superb and with a bottle of Brouilly inside me the world seems somewhat cheerier.

I have now created a route to Rheims using the Gaia app it tells me it is 78 miles so I will be very lucky to make it. The user interface is much better and more natural than Viewranger, so it will be interesting.

Todays 43.3 miles ride is on Strava here:

Strava_Ride___Fresnes_Les_Montauban_to_Le_Cateau

 

The pics are here

As for the panniers – they are catching the first boat home 🙂

 

Day 5 Gonnehem to Fresnes Les Montauban

IMG_3180With great reluctance I departed from  Le Clos du Fouan  into the grey & wet morning. I headed back down to the canal, marvelling at the size of the barges, probably equivalent to half a dozen UK ones also on the distance between locks, this part of France is certainly flat. I left the canal at La Bassèe had a cake and coffee and then headed into the French road system. My carefully constructed route on Viewranger quickly turned to shambles when confronted by strictly no cycling signs and huge artics squeezing past. I hastily made another route which interestingly took me through all the ex mining village’s & distinctive conical pit tips.

I tried to repeat last nights success using @aroundme all it came with is the L’Aquarium Hotel with it’s closed restaurant,  this poor motel styled hotel is rather cut off by a motorway, high speed train track and a dual carriageway. But once you have navigated in it’s clean with good showers.

I’ve spent the evening using Viewranger to edit tomorrows route using the Bing aerial photos as a background so I can physically see the towpaths, fields and absence of bridges.

Legs are starting to loosen up and Sally’s pressie of Endura overshoes certainly came in very handy preventing wet feet, until google maps had me going down farm tracks with deep puddles 🙁

Here is the Strava result for the day:

Strava_Ride___Gonnehem_to_Fresnes_Les_Montauban

A short day of 49 miles of which 9 were messing about trying to find the hotel, incorrectly shown on Aroundme but correct on Google Maps.

The pics are here today.

Day 4 Calais to Gonnehem

After a dreadful nights sleep, what with the squawking seagulls (please remind me never to live near the sea!) and plumbing noises. It was straight off to SFR to sort out the bricked dongle. They eventually replaced it after everyone inspected it like some dead animal.

IMG_3160I started to follow the rather magnificent canal although it’s quite tiring making sure you are on the correct side and that the canal is going the correct way, you can see from the Strava data I failed at one point getting stuck in a Y junction.  I finally made it, very tired & down to Watten for a slap up lunch. Debating to myself whether just to let a train take the strain. Google maps failed again in the afternoon where the canal path was just not there!  making me use a main road in a procession of artics.

The iPhone app AroundMe came up trumps however with the gite for tonight. Le Clos du Fouan is excellent with a shower I could happily unscrew and take back to Cambridge except of cause Cambridge water is very hard. Unfortunately the local restaurant is closed Monday nights so it was off to Clarisse’s chippie wagon.

Another 57.5 miles done. Unfortunately the cadence meter seems to have packed up 🙁 but here is the Strava data:-

Strava_Ride___Calais_too_Gonnehem-2

The day photographs are here

 

 

Leaving the Country – Day 3 – Whitstable to Calais

IMG_5104After a most magnificent breakfast at the Oyster Guest House, unusually, in my experience, cooked by the landlady.

I started  the final UK leg to Dover, I opted for the scenic route to avoid Canterbury & the evils of the A290.

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The first part was on the Oyster Bay cyclepath, A REAL cycle path along the coast to Herne Bay then inland through delightful villages such as Preston finally arriving back on the coast at Sandwich. The ride along the coast here was pretty tough with a  10-15mph head wind. Then the monster climb from Kingsdown beach to St Margaret’s.

The descent into Dover was once again marred by the wretched Route 1 Kissing gates (although slightly larger this time) really pleased to be leaving those obstructions behind.

£20 later and I was grateful to be aboard the DFDS ferry to Calais, as the rain had started 🙁 I managed a lovely Facetime chat with Isla who enjoyed seeing the white cliffs of Dover from the ship 🙂

IMG_5108Now booked into the Hotel Pacific which I’m pretty sure is where I stayed last time.  Tonights Moule Marineres were made rather exciting as suddenly the heavens opened up with amazing ferocity . all we customers had to hang onto the awning to prevent its escape onto the English Channel.

Once again struggling to get internet access in France. I finally, reluctantly, decided to get the SFR Web Trotter dongle with a 4GB allowance to be used in 30 days. Lets hope it works, seems to be taking ages to charge up. The shop opens at 10am tomorrow…..

Todays Strava stats for the 39 miles (I did 3 more miles in Calais) are here:

Strava_Ride___Whitstable_to_Dover

and the days pics are here