We have put a selection of tour photos in an online album. Click the following link to view
https://skydrive.live.com/redir.aspx?cid=510581cb4e77b2a4&page=play&resid=510581CB4E77B2A4%21834
Saturday 10 September 2011
Monday 5 September 2011
Back to Blighty...
St Valery, at the mouth of the Somme, has a packed yacht marina and many restaurants, their tables spilling out onto the streets. Lots of the customers are holidaying Brits. A long promenade leads under the old walled town, high up on a cliff. This old part, remarkably, has remained very traditional without tourist businesses. The main cobbled square has a flint church on one side and old brick houses on two others. The remaining side, on the cliff top, was totally destroyed by a bomb early in WW2.
Our campsite is handy to the promenade, so we cycle along it in the morning then across the back of the beach, on sand. The only sound from the bird reserve are shots as ducks are blasted out of the blue sky!
The coast route is hilly, but worth it for the cliff top views and the picturesque seaside villages at each dip down to the sea. Very suddenly a sea mist comes in and we are enveloped in a real pea-souper for the last 15 miles into DIEPPE.
At the ferry port, one boat is due to depart at 6.00pm. This is completely booked up and there is a waiting list. Thankfully we want the next early morning one, as we don't fancy arriving in Newhaven at night. We are pleasantly pleased to be only charged 25 euro per person at this peak time. Now we have the evening to explore the old port. As it is Saturday a busy market is in full flow around the large central church, and there are pleasure and fishing boats jostling for space on the busy harbour.
Sitting at a restaurant window table we watch a few heavy drops of rain suddenly become a prolonged deluge. Our poor bikes and panniers are soaked through and the street water rushes round the wheels. We spin our meal out until the rain stops around 10 pm. The TV in the restaurant shows a weather alert for northern France. We cross a swing bridge in the town centre and return to the ferry terminal where a security guard lets us and 3 other cyclists spend the rest of the night inside.
Thankfully the storm had no wind so we enjoy a calm sailing to NEWHAVEN at 5.30 next morning. National Cycle Route 2 takes us put of the town, along a very rough track and then across the cliff tops to Brighton seafront and past the famous Grand Hotel, to Hove. Here we are installed in niece Claire's mews cottage for a few days.
Whilst our tent drys in their courtyard, we walk along the promenade as the wind picks up, crashing powerful waves onto the pebbly beach.
Despite the warning red flag, almost wrenched off it's pole in the gusts, kite surfers race over the crests at frightening speeds.
With a day to spare for sightseeing, we have a very windy walk, taking in the Royal Crescent, the Pavilions, the narrow streets of the Lanes and consume fresh fish, chips and mushy peas by the beach.
We book a van for the one way trip back to Exeter, avoiding a ride into the strong head winds. All that is left now is to warn family and friends that we are homeward bound!
Total miles on tour 4,500
Our campsite is handy to the promenade, so we cycle along it in the morning then across the back of the beach, on sand. The only sound from the bird reserve are shots as ducks are blasted out of the blue sky!
The coast route is hilly, but worth it for the cliff top views and the picturesque seaside villages at each dip down to the sea. Very suddenly a sea mist comes in and we are enveloped in a real pea-souper for the last 15 miles into DIEPPE.
At the ferry port, one boat is due to depart at 6.00pm. This is completely booked up and there is a waiting list. Thankfully we want the next early morning one, as we don't fancy arriving in Newhaven at night. We are pleasantly pleased to be only charged 25 euro per person at this peak time. Now we have the evening to explore the old port. As it is Saturday a busy market is in full flow around the large central church, and there are pleasure and fishing boats jostling for space on the busy harbour.
Sitting at a restaurant window table we watch a few heavy drops of rain suddenly become a prolonged deluge. Our poor bikes and panniers are soaked through and the street water rushes round the wheels. We spin our meal out until the rain stops around 10 pm. The TV in the restaurant shows a weather alert for northern France. We cross a swing bridge in the town centre and return to the ferry terminal where a security guard lets us and 3 other cyclists spend the rest of the night inside.
Thankfully the storm had no wind so we enjoy a calm sailing to NEWHAVEN at 5.30 next morning. National Cycle Route 2 takes us put of the town, along a very rough track and then across the cliff tops to Brighton seafront and past the famous Grand Hotel, to Hove. Here we are installed in niece Claire's mews cottage for a few days.
Whilst our tent drys in their courtyard, we walk along the promenade as the wind picks up, crashing powerful waves onto the pebbly beach.
Despite the warning red flag, almost wrenched off it's pole in the gusts, kite surfers race over the crests at frightening speeds.
With a day to spare for sightseeing, we have a very windy walk, taking in the Royal Crescent, the Pavilions, the narrow streets of the Lanes and consume fresh fish, chips and mushy peas by the beach.
We book a van for the one way trip back to Exeter, avoiding a ride into the strong head winds. All that is left now is to warn family and friends that we are homeward bound!
Total miles on tour 4,500
Location:ST VALERY to BRIGHTON
Saturday 3 September 2011
"They are not lost, they are here"
On our way to Ypres we chance upon Maple Copse Cemetery, literally in the corner of a field, with a Lutyens memorial gate and maple trees, tinged with autumn red, for the Canadians buried here. On the Menin Road into Ypres is a larger cemetery with many Australians killed in September 1917, some heartbreakingly young at just 17.
Also there, a VC holder, a 21 year old Captain from Kent, killed by a sniper only days after almost singlehandedly taking out 2 German machine gun posts.
Then the unmistakable, enormous pale stone arch that is the Menin Gate, through the moat around Ypres, enscribed with thousands of names of fallen soldiers whose remains were never found. "They are not lost, they are here" declared General Fuller when he officially opened the Memorial. The 'Last Post' is played by a bugler here every evening at 8pm.
YPRES is a testimony to revival as the centre was rebuilt exactly as it had been, complete with the enormous cloth trading hall and cathedral.
There is a dedicated cycle path to PASSENDAELE following the train line that was a battle front heroically held by Australians, with remains of bunkers and a farm that somehow survived and still farms today.
Nearby is the enormous Tyn Cot Memorial to the commonwealth soldiers, on a hill with views over the wide battle area.
Warm Showers hosts are Flemish Caroline and David at POELKEPELLE. David has cycled in Canada and all the way down to S. America. Dinner was a delicious typical Flemish meal of ham and Chicory in a cheese sauce with mashed potato spiced with nutmeg.
After only 15 miles next morning we are back in France with our bikes once more referred to as Velos instead of Fiets. The minor roads we take undulate through cattle, potato and fruit farms. We camp at a very pretty farm at VERCHIN. Wandering around the village in the evening we discover the church has a tall twisted spire, as if it is growing towards the sun!
The weather has been fine for days now and is forecast to stay the same for the last few days of our trip. Next morning we start off road on farm tracks then quiet roads for 5pm to the village of AZINCOURT. We search out the famous battle site, now corn fields. A leaflet provided by the tourist office is completely devoid of facts, even omitting to mention that the French were defeated.
At the coast we skirt a large bird reserve. There is a dedicated cycle path down the Somme estuary until we cross to the other bank at the seaside town of ST VALERY SUR SOMME. We have completed the circle now, having first reached the Somme back in June.
Miles to date 4,390
Also there, a VC holder, a 21 year old Captain from Kent, killed by a sniper only days after almost singlehandedly taking out 2 German machine gun posts.
Then the unmistakable, enormous pale stone arch that is the Menin Gate, through the moat around Ypres, enscribed with thousands of names of fallen soldiers whose remains were never found. "They are not lost, they are here" declared General Fuller when he officially opened the Memorial. The 'Last Post' is played by a bugler here every evening at 8pm.
YPRES is a testimony to revival as the centre was rebuilt exactly as it had been, complete with the enormous cloth trading hall and cathedral.
There is a dedicated cycle path to PASSENDAELE following the train line that was a battle front heroically held by Australians, with remains of bunkers and a farm that somehow survived and still farms today.
Nearby is the enormous Tyn Cot Memorial to the commonwealth soldiers, on a hill with views over the wide battle area.
Warm Showers hosts are Flemish Caroline and David at POELKEPELLE. David has cycled in Canada and all the way down to S. America. Dinner was a delicious typical Flemish meal of ham and Chicory in a cheese sauce with mashed potato spiced with nutmeg.
After only 15 miles next morning we are back in France with our bikes once more referred to as Velos instead of Fiets. The minor roads we take undulate through cattle, potato and fruit farms. We camp at a very pretty farm at VERCHIN. Wandering around the village in the evening we discover the church has a tall twisted spire, as if it is growing towards the sun!
The weather has been fine for days now and is forecast to stay the same for the last few days of our trip. Next morning we start off road on farm tracks then quiet roads for 5pm to the village of AZINCOURT. We search out the famous battle site, now corn fields. A leaflet provided by the tourist office is completely devoid of facts, even omitting to mention that the French were defeated.
At the coast we skirt a large bird reserve. There is a dedicated cycle path down the Somme estuary until we cross to the other bank at the seaside town of ST VALERY SUR SOMME. We have completed the circle now, having first reached the Somme back in June.
Miles to date 4,390
Location:MENIN to ST VALERY
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