| Day # | 38 | State of Legs | :-) |
| Distance (miles) | Distance (km) | Ascent (feet) | Ascent (metres) | Punctures | |
| Today | 21.8 miles | km | 1263 feet | metres | 0 |
| Trip Totals | 1368 miles | km | 47238 feet | metres | 0 |
| Today's Route |
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| Route So Far |
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Travelogue
We awoke this morning to a novel type of weather for this trip. No, it wasn't a typhoon or a hurricane or snow. It was mist. Fairly thick mist. We set off with our bike lights on for the first time.
The sun made a valiant effort though and eventually, the mist cleared to reveal a very lovely, sunny day. Today's was a short ride to the coast so it was nice to do most of it in sunshine.
We were overtaken by a motorcycle which was carrying a passenger. Both were dressed all in black and we joked that they were clearly criminals on the way to their next robbery or fleeing from the last, us having watched far too many crime-based films and TV shows of late. It's all thanks to Spiral!
It turns out that in fact it was a Belgian couple who, around a bend further down the road, stopped, got off their motorcycle, clambered up on one of the many "wheels of straw" that lie in the fields and proceeded to try to roll it by walking on the top, much like a couple of escaped hamsters on the outside of their wheel!
M1 stopped and joked with them ("crazy kids"!) and took their photo. They looked like a fun pair!
It wasn't long before we'd rejoined EV4 and were cycling into the village of Ambleteuse.
It was still the morning so rather than go directly to today's campsite, we found a bar to have a coffee in. The bar that we went into was a slightly weird place, as much a shop as a bar and as much a betting office for gamblers as it was a shop! A middle-aged woman was the only person serving customers and so there was a long line. Everyone in front of M1 bought "scratch cards" or cigarettes or both. To the right were the village's hardcore drinkers, enjoying their nth beer of the morning. It seemed that only one of the classic vices was not being catered for. Hmmmm. Maybe upstairs?
The woman serving did not give off the friendliest of vibes. This is not how it's been in pretty much every other bar we've been in. Weird. M1 paid for the coffees with a 20 Euro note. And was given change from ten! M1 queried this and got a "désolé" but there wasn't much sincerity coming across in that exchange either!
At a table with three older folk at it, a similarly aged French man was standing, addressing everyone. M1 could pick out "L'Anglais" over and over again. It wasn't possible to figure out what he was saying about "L'Anglais" but it added to the sense that this was not a place that was friendly towards the English! Of course, it may have been cyclists that were unpopular. Or just M1 :-)
We drank our coffees and M1 went back in and asked whether the FIFA Women's World Cup was going to be on the TV in the corner. The semi-finals were due to start at mid-day and England were playing the hosts, Australia. There was only French spoken in this exchange so it's possible there was a misunderstanding, but it seemed as though we were assured that it would be on. So, M1 took a couple of Cokes from the fridge, paid for them at the counter and joined M2 at a table facing the TV.
Mid-day approached and the TV continued to show some French game show. The remote control was sat on the table next to us, so M1 started flicking through the channels. This brought the "nice lady" out from behind the bar and she either assured us that her son would sort out the TV channel shortly or she gave M1 a thorough telling off for using the remote control, despite it being on one of the tables that customers sit at! We'll never know. She also demanded more money because we'd drunk the Cokes at a table. Fair enough, but apparently the price doubles if you sit down. Hmmmmm.
12:00 came and went and we got sick of waiting for the football to appear, so we left and cycled the short distance to our campsite.
The staff in the office were lovely. Very friendly and welcoming and we were directed to the campsite bar right next door, where there was free WiFi and electricity. M1 fired up the laptop, connected to his VPN server at home, launched the BBC iPlayer web site and we settled down to watch the England game, having only missed a bit of the first half. The score was still nil-nil at this point.
And it was a cracking game which England went on to win 3 - 1 ! So, England are in the World Cup Final!!
Sadly, we will be sitting on a ferry sailing from Calais to Dover or perhaps riding our bikes across Kent when the final is played. Ah well!
The campsite is pretty good. Nice clean facilities. A decent pitch for our tent. A place to sit and blog. Even the insects are friendly. That'll do nicely.
The beach is only a five minute walk away so late in the afternoon, we walked down and along the promenade. We sat a while and watched the world go by before heading back to relax.
We're not cycling tomorrow and may instead do some walking up to Cap Griz Nez. We shall see.
Fin.
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