Bikepacking - Folkestone to Dover (England), Calais to Vimy (France)

Day #

03

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	81 miles	km	2602 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	167 miles	km	6384 feet	metres	0

Today's Route (England)

Today's Route (France)

Route So Far

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Travelogue

Bonjours mes amis!! Yes, it's true. I'm writing this post from France having made it across today and cycled all the way to my current location. All without (major) incident by which I mean all without being attacked a single time by a seagull. Or other wildlife for that matter. Well... there was a little dog that barked at me a couple of times but I'll assume it was being friendly.

Anyway, to begin at the beginning.

I always knew today would be hard and I expected it to be stressful too. It was hard, yes. But happily all the issues I thought might make this tough in other ways turned out to be non-issues.

I started the day with a near-catastrophe. Not an actual catastrophe, thankfully. I needed to be up at 4:45 and set an alarm on my phone the night before. At least I thought I had. Turned out the settings limited it to use on weekdays and this being a Saturday, it didn't go off! Luckily I was awake anyway otherwise I might have missed my ferry.

I was on the road by 5:30 and cycled along the cliffs to Dover. There's some stiff hills to climb on that route although the total ascent was not much. 

A farewell to Folkestone

The clifftop path on the way to Dover

I arrived at Dover Ferry Port at 6:30 for my 8:30 ferry to Calais. That's 30 minutes ahead of the 90 minutes asked of passengers. I'd dreaded Dover. Britain's largest port, full of enormous trucks and me on a little bike.

At the entrance to Dover Ferry Port

Approaching border control

But I had nothing to worry about. It's really well organised. You cycle along a painted red line that keeps you well away from the traffic. Passing through border control was a breeze too. No questions about accommodation, insurance, Covid vaccinations and so on. Straight through. And checking in with DFDS was also super easy, so much so that they got me on the next available ferry at 7:10, putting me well ahead of schedule. I was walked to a place at the head of one of the lanes in front of all the cars and carefully told when to head up the ramp and onto the ferry. Slick.

Waiting my turn to cycle up the ramp onto the ferry

On the ferry with England receding in the background

The ferry was as I remember them. Big British guys, pint of lager in hand at 7:30 a.m. That kind of thing :-)

Waiting to disembark at Calais

It got even better at Calais. Riding down the ramp and stopping at the first control point, I was asked first in French and then in English if I needed the Exit (or something like that!). I said yes and the next thing I know, I was being personally escorted via a safe route, following a van driven by the staff member who had spoken to me. He drove me right out of the port to a roundabout signed "Centre de Ville" and waved goodbye. How cool was that?

About 50 metres later, I saw a sign for Calais and a big grin broke out all over my face. I was in France!

OMG I'm in France!

With 67 miles of cycling ahead of me, I set off keeping an eye on my written directions and checking the Organic Maps app from time to time. Everything went swimmingly and I didn't get lost once.

Now, travel is of course educational and I can tell you that within an hour I had learned some interesting things about France.

1. They drive on the wrong side of the road! Can you believe it?! ;-)

2. They have this wonderful, smooth black stuff which forms an unbroken layer on the surface of all their roads. I think it's called tarmac. Not a single pot hole in 67 miles. I wonder who else knows about this technological innovation?!

3. French drivers, in fact French people are nice. They were certainly nice to me anyway. Drivers are super careful and patient with cyclists. You're not a second class citizen and I never felt any sense that drivers were frustrated or angry like at home. I had a conversation with a man who was in his garden when I'd stopped to have a drink. It was probably hilarious because I was never 100% sure what he was saying to me. It went something like "blah long sentence that included the word 'velo'". My response, something like "Oui, c'est une velo" :-) He did ask me if I wanted any water, that I do know. And a guy at the lights rolled his window down and started talking about the Tour de France in part English, part French. Nice!

Within an hour I'd started to feel I was in the countryside. I was riding on fast, very straight roads and there was traffic but not like it is in the UK and I never felt unsafe. This whole day was supposed to be flat by the way but it most certainly was not! A ten mile section was like a roller coaster, up and down, up and down. And there was a strong headwind which took the whizz out of the downhill parts. But no problem. 

This section was meant to be flat!

Over here I'm a saint!

French roads are designed with cyclists in mind!

 In Saint-Omer, I decided to buy a bottle of coke or similar. A sugary drink is a good thing to keep the legs going. But I arrived on market day, the town was a delight and I ended up having an onion quiche and cup of coffee in the local pattiserie as well as the coke. Well worth the pause.

There was another first today. Brace yourselves. I put on some sun block! My legs, between my knees and the point at which my cycling shorts ended had started to glow. I think I need to buy a large tub of sun block!

After Saint-Omer, I hit the road again with no further stops other than to take the occasional photo or gulp down a drink. In one town, I got stuck in a small traffic jam with seemingly every car honking its horn. Why were they all so angry?! Apparently the weren't. A couple was getting married and I believe the car horns were a form of congratulations!

The happy couple

Not sure what the weird man-made hills are but I recognised them and knew I wasn't far from my destination

A cemetery for British soldiers

My destination, Vimy!

Tonight, I'm camping but not at a campsite and not wild camping either. HomeCamper is a bit like AirBnb but instead of renting a room in someone's house, you pay to put your tent in their garden. It's a brilliant idea.

My hosts are Irek and Elisabeth. They don't speak a lot of English (but they do speak some) and I only speak a bit of French. But we're communicating, sometimes with the help of Google. They've been very welcoming, showing me around and fetching me water, a table for my dinner and so on. I'm now sat at the table in their conservatory typing this.

A pretty good day though I have to admit, more than a little tiring! All good training for Switzerland though :-)

Home sweet home, chez Irek and Elisabeth

Dinner, perhaps supper and probably breakfast too