Because of the lack of internet and WiFi and the fact that I didn't have enough room to carry my laptop with me I wrote down on paper everything that happened so I could retro write about my trip when I got back, hence the dates at the top of these pages.
After a few last minute bits sorted the bike was all packed up ready to go, now it did look a little top heavy and I was a bit worried that the handling would be.."interesting" shall we say.
As you can see Doris was all clean and shiny ready for the trip it was going to be a pleasant evening and from what I read a very calm crossing which means with a bit of luck I will able to get some sleep on the way over to Dieppe as I hadn't had much time for that during today which had been my plan. I had packed the top box with a two gallon fuel can just in case a tyre inflater, spare bulbs tools etc as well as a pair of shoes and the bike cover, absolutely amazing what you can pack into a small space when you need to, I also had a dry bag strapped to the top box with a spare pair of jeans and tee shirt and socks a pair of sandals and my really wet waterproofs. The tank bag held all my documents disk lock and money, sunglasses and camera oh and my phone.
My crossing from Newhaven was booked for 23:00 according to the blurb I was supposed to be there 90 minutes before the sailing which of course meant getting there for 21:30 it is about an hour away from my place so I reckoned on leaving somewhere between 20:00 and 20:30 I wanted time to brim the tank before I got on the ferry.
Lorni was on nights so left the house a little before 19:00 I went through everything one more time to make sure I hadn't left anything behind and then got togged up and left just before 20:00. I arrived early which wasn't a problem it was a warm evening I took my time as I had to find out how the bike handled with all that gear sitting on the saddle and to be honest it made n difference at all and the side stand held up OK. I however had a bit of a job getting on and off as I had to get my leg between the luggage and the tank which lead to some interesting comments and just a little humour. There were a lot of bikes waiting to get on the ferry, one group of bikers were from Angers in the Loire Valley, I will be going close to the same place and were on their way home they seem to be all riding Triumphs of one form or another. nice guys, another guy riding a Yamaha was on his way back to Almeria where he lives he has been doing a little job in the UK, he moved over to Spain some years back and works fro BMW although he would never buy one...hmmm interesting.
We got loaded on the Ferry around 22:30 and she left bang on time at 23:00 exactly I made my way up the stairs found the decent seats the ones that look like captain seats and dropped my stuff in one seat and made myself comfortable and dozed off for a three and half hours. I woke up with just enough time to get myself a cup of coffee and a continental breakfast, then came the message from the tannoy to return to your vehicles...yaaa the adventure starts.
The ferry docked on time at 5 am I had to put my clocks forward an hour, it was still dark in Dieppe when I set off after clearing custom checks the sun rise started just as I went past Rouen and boy what a sunrise that was.
I stopped for fuel after 202 miles getting on for halfway to my overnight stop, I've got a sore butt already and my neck hurts I think I will have to do some work on this girl before I do this type of trip again. I have also noticed how much hotter it's getting as I get further south, I had a bite to eat at the service station and a drink and stretched my legs made a call to Lorni to let her know how I was getting on. They do like their wind turbines here in France.
My over night stop was in a hotel in a little town not too far from Bordeaux called Libourne, it's in the Saint Emilion area of France where some really good wine comes from the area surrounding the hotel is simply gorgeous I wish I had more time to explore.
Finding the hotel was a bit fraught for two reasons, first there is a lot of roadworks going on around the area with just tons of local diversions all over the place and secondly for some reason the Sat Nav couldn't find the Hotel even though I had plumbed the whole route in days ago, I tried putting the address of the hotel in and....couldn't find any matches, it is now very very hot and I was getting tired and very irritable. Eventually I put the route in for my return as I was using the same hotel and bingo I found it. The bike looked very empty after I had removed all the luggage.
What I didn't know was I had picked the only Hotel in France that doesn't serve food at the weekend so thank god I had stopped and had something to eat earlier on so I covered the bike up had a cup of coffee and went to bed.
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