Bikepacking 2023 - Folkestone (England) to Renescure (France)

Day #

3

State of Legs

:-)

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	Distance (miles)	Distance (km)	Ascent (feet)	Ascent (metres)	Punctures
Today	53.1 miles	km	1998 feet	metres	0
Trip Totals	145.4 miles	km	6828 feet	metres	0

Today's Route

Relive the Route, Folkestone to Dover

Route So Far

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Travelogue

Once again, today started early, at 5 a.m. to be precise. The latest rules for catching a DFDS ferry to France, indicate that the latest you can check-in is two hours before sailing. Ours was a 09:00 sailing, so that meant 07:00 at the latest. We had 8 miles to cycle to Dover, starting with a steep and lengthy enough climb, and knew it would probably take 45 minutes or more to get sorted out, break camp, load up the bikes and leave. So, we had a phone alarm set to 5:00 and that's when we got up. You have to be a dedicated sort to be a bikepacker!

The ride to Dover from Folkestone is pretty good, largely staying close to the cliffs and offering a great view of the English Channel, in our case, on a clear day, early in the morning. But it does start with a pretty stiff climb up from the campsite to the top of the cliffs and that's quite a way to start your day and without a cup or two of coffee to have kick-started the system! All good though. M2, pedalled her way up the climb, with her low cadence, high gear technique, whilst M1 on The Mule, achieved the same using his preferred Chris Froome style high cadence, low gear technique. Yes, M1 has been compared to Chris Froome! In the way that we both pedal. Nothing else. But that will do!

At Dover, we found our way to the port and stopped to take a couple of photos before heading for Frontier Control to present our passports.

"You did remember your passport, didn't you?" M2 said to M1.

"Errrr......"!!!

But M1 was just kidding. Of course he'd remembered his passport! Could he really be so stupid as to forget it?

"Errrr....." :-)

Presenting his passport, the French immigration official greeted M1 with a friendly "Bonjour". And that was it. It was like a switch being flicked. From that point on, M1 was positively fluent in French. Where by fluent, I mean he started generating sentences (of sorts) which comprised scraps of French vocabulary, just about remembered from learning them at school decades ago, and English words, pronounced with an exaggerated French accent, which I'm sure to a French ear sounds wonderful. This approach to fluency does seem to work and so far, M1 has not been punched in the nose by an angry and insulted French person, but no doubt this is a risk.

After Frontier Control, we continued into the port on our bikes. Almost immediately, and to our slight alarm, we were selected for security checks and diverted into a special security building! We feared we'd have to unpack everything but no. We feared there might be a strip search! But also, no. We were simply shown a picture of guns and bombs and machetes and asked if we had any of these items. We felt the right answer to give was "No", so that's the one we opted for and it worked, as we were immediately allowed to proceed. And also, we didn't have any guns or bombs or machetes, so that was rather fortunate. 

We cycled on through the port, checked in at the DFDS building. Having got there the required two hours early, it was puzzling.... but also pleasing, to be told we could sail on a much earlier ferry instead, the 07:40! 

We cycled to the lane from which to board our ferry. We were given nice clear instructions by the Dover port staff, and rode our bikes up the big ramp onto the ferry, where they were securely lashed to something solid by a seaman. 

On the ferry, we immediately ordered coffee and pain au chocolat. Obviously. We were pretty much in France, after all.

After an hour at sea, M1 announced he could see France. This was his cue to insist that he and M2 go down to the deck the bikes were travelling in and wait to be allowed to access it. There was of course no point in going so early, but this is one of M1's many character defects. He has to be at the front of any queue. Always. No matter what inconvenience or discomfort it might cause for him or his companions. So, down we went to deck 5. And stood there for about 30 minutes! M2 was patient and understanding, in the way that you might be with a friend you are fond of, despite the fact they are clearly developmentally challenged.

M2 being patient :-)

But soon enough (OK, after waiting for ages!) we were able to collect our bikes and join the queue of cars waiting to disembark, which is a seafaring term meaning "get off".

On cycling down the ramp off the ship, a French port employee in a van shouted across to us (in English), "Follow me!". M1 had been to Calais before and knew to expect this, but it was still quite awesome. We were escorted by the Man in the Van (l'homme dans le van) all the way out of the large port complex to a roundabout with a sign to Calais Centre Ville. Tremendous. 

We're in France! :-)

Using the Organic Maps app, which had been preloaded with the route, we navigated successfully to the start of the route and cycled through and then out of Calais, finding ourselves by a canal.

 Today's route and in fact, much of the route for our first couple of weeks, involved the Eurovelo cycle route network, starting with route EV5. EV5 is well developed in France and it was a delight to encounter our first sign, which M2 spotted with her eagle eyes and then others at intervals.

M1 was alarmed by one sign though. Apparently in France, one must be wary of creatures called Herissons which would appear to pose a puncture threat to bike tyres. This is more worrying than all the broken glass in the cycle paths of Britain. At least the bits of broken glass can't chase you on your bike!

On we cycled, again following a canal, replete with numerous ducks of various species and ages. M2 impressed M1 by knowing the French word for duck, and thus the canal became "Canal des Canards". That may even be its official name.

The Eurovelo signs, whilst welcome, can sometimes be a bit ambiguous. This is a preamble for this bit, where M1 and M2 took a wrong turn and ended up on a lane for agricultural vehicles, which started nicely with tarmac as its surface, but eventually degenerated into what can only be described as a field and then promptly disappeared altogether!

Oops. It's all part of the adventure.

A U-turn and then a detour to a nearby road was taken, and after a while we rejoined the planned route. No harm done.

We found some big Eurovelo signs. That was exciting.

A big Eurovelo sign

The road we cycled on from here was a D road, straight, fast and with a good cycling surface. But there was also a fair amount of traffic, some lorries, a pretty strong wind (which sometimes worked in our favour and sometimes not) and lots of down and up, up and down. It was getting pretty tiring and we realised that what we really needed was food! So, we carried on to St Omer, which M1 had cycled through last year and knew to be a market town with a good selection of places to get food. And, we ended up in exactly the same place M1 had dined at last year, drawn there by the amazing onion quiche that is made on the premises. 

They're not both for M1!

Seriously.... Yum!

M1 went for coffee and a chocolate muffin as well 

Refreshed and recharged, we headed on down the road to finish the 8 miles or so to our campsite, stopping at a supermarket to buy bread, cheese, tomatoes and other food, far too much to get through today, to be honest!

The cheese was very much like brie in appearance, but had a more satisfying flavour, a bit like camembert. Not a bad choice, albeit a random one.

And finally, we arrived at our campsite, booked in advance some months ago. It's a really nice site, in the grounds of what looks like it might have once been a farm house, but which is now a very nicely finished home. We had a really friendly greeting, were shown to our pitch where we put the tent up, showered and changed and then set ourselves up in a communal room which has tables, chairs, power and Wi-Fi. We had dinner. And blogging was taken care of.

And that dear reader, is our third day in a nutshell!