Welcome back to the UK!!

Yes, this is the sight that greeted me as the ferry docked into Dover this morning! Rain, rain and more torrential rain. What a welcome home! The rain along with the usual friendly email reminder from HMRC to file my next VAT return all shouted "welcome back to the UK, Andi!"

The bike bus was over an hour late picking me up last night. I was fortunate, it wasn't raining where I was but those who had been picked up from further South had been stood waiting in deluges. That can't have been nice. There is rarely any shelter at the pick-up points and who knows when a bus is going to turn up.

I slept reasonably well considering and was fortunate to have 2 seats to myself again. I think I slept in 10 minute bursts until I needed to change from one uncomfortable position to another. No sleep-chatting that I'm aware of and fortunately no-one sat next to me to experience all the dribbling!

The courier left a lot of hungry cyclists without our pre-ordered breakfasts this morning, not even a cup of tea. Perhaps he was asleep? The ferry was at 8.40am, I'm usually eating brekkie at 7am. I was famished and rugby tackled my way to the cafe on the boat to buy some food and drink. I then returned to normal Andi after that!

In Calais, it seems effortless and efficient to disembark the ferry and then get straight onto the roads and away. In Dover, everything gridlocks. So now we were in rain that was hammering loudly on the coach and we were barely moving. Stuck in never-ending traffic jams seemed to be the theme of the journey in the UK. Roadworks everywhere and ridiculous volumes of traffic. Where was everyone going on Monday morning? And Monday afternoon? And Monday evening?

I was looking forward to lunch on the bus, the menu is great. But the courier had once again sold out of everything, including water. And including milk so we couldn't even have a cup of tea. Intriguingly, there were hundreds of cans of beer stashed on the bus. This courier clearly understood the needs of cyclists......not!

And because of the traffic jams, it was then over 5 hours before our first stop at a service station for some food and drink. I bought most of Waitrose and half of Starbucks and felt much better after munching my way through that.

I asked the courier again for a cup of tea please a short while later. He muttered something, disappeared, the coach pulled into the next service station, I watched the courier run into the petrol station and run back out with a pint of milk. He'd obviously forgotten to buy any at our stop!! Honestly!

I slept, read, caught up with some diary writing and repeated for hour after hour until YIPPEE - there was the sign for Wetherby Services, my stop!

And lovely Ade was waiting for me as my bike, panniers and me got off the bus. Well, his car was waiting for me, he was nowhere to be seen! And I was glad I'd been pre-warned about his new Captain Birds Eye beardy look otherwise I might have got a shock! I can't say if I like it or don't like it. It's different and it's always good to try something new :-))

I probably nattered him to death in the car on the way home. After all that travelling and being quite sleep-deprived, I wasn't entirely sure what planet I was on. But he did leave me by saying "you go and get your shower" - yeah, thanks!! Drop a hint why don't you!

Thank you Ade for picking me up and delivering me safely home :-))

So that's it. Back to some kind of normality tomorrow I guess. Boo!

Thank you everyone for your wonderful support and encouragement and for being with me along the way. It's been a fabulous experience and lovely to share it with you all :-))

I'd better get planning my next trip ASAP!

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I did it!!

I did it!! I set out on this trip to conquer Mont Ventoux, Col de la Bonette and Alpe d'Huez (climbed for the 2nd time but the summit was closed the 1st time for the Tour de France) and I achieved all those things and enjoyed plenty more on this fabulous cycle-camping tour :-))

And I am now part way through the adventure of the journey home.

Firstly though, I enjoyed another thoroughly relaxing morning at Mary's. Chatting, building all sorts of creative things out of lego-type blocks with Max (helicopters, water-towers, coffee machines), strolling around their local village and eating even more fabulous food were the order of the day.

It then became rapidly less relaxing as it became apparent that the meeting place for the bike bus was quite a way out of the centre of Lyon, contrary to what I'd thought and understood from the map on their website. This learning occurred just as I was about to leave!

A rapid change of clothing was required - back into cycle kit as the cycle was around 1.5 hours from Lyon. A mon dieu! (OMG in English!!)

Mary went into super-speed mode, printed me some maps across Lyon and found another railway station that would get me closer to my pick-up point. Thank you always Mary :-))

Max gave me a lovely big kiss and a fabulous cuddle as well as his usual cheeky grin (and probably said something about "Madame Moussa", his current favourite saying) and Rene accompanied me by bike to their local station to ensure I didn't get lost and in case of catastrophic mechanical breakdown.

And then I was on the first of three trains, wondering what would come next and missing Mary, Max and Rene already :-(

The first train was simple enough. A lady sat behind me had a lot of questions about my tour, what I did for a living and the migrant situation in the UK (!), all in French of course. She was actually Hungarian. I had quite a headache by the end of it after searching the corners of my brain for French vocab I haven't used for over 20 years.

The second train was absolutely packed and, in my friendliest French, I had to ask some people to budge off their seats as that's where the bikes needed to go. Another guy with a bike was behind me who had been on my first train as well. He seemed to spend both train trips helping damsels in distress who were incapable of lifting their bikes on and off the bike hooks provided on the train. What a hero!

I then needed to cycle a few kilometres across Lyon, a major city, to find another train station. I wasn't unduly concerned as everything in France is superbly well signposted.

Not this time!! And I suddenly became incapable of following a map, despite 2 weeks of successfully doing so. I was on the right road, just heading in the wrong direction (little change there then). Thankfully, the pedestrians of Lyon were enormously helpful at getting me back on track. I was literally asking people at every street corner and pedalling to each point step by step. They were all so friendly, I was very grateful.

After a bit of an adventure attempting to catch a train on the metro (underground) system where bikes are not permitted, I found the actual train station I was heading for with literally minutes to spare to fathom out an automated ticket machine as no human beings seem to work on Sunday in France. A-ha! An English translation facility! This slowed the machine down to snail speeds whilst the clock was ticking, the train was approaching and my heart rate was rapidly increasing to palpitation levels. Agh!! The reason? This was the last train of the day!!

I did catch it and all was well. And then I followed the next map correctly to my bike bus pick-up point. Phew!

And now that I've indulged in a large glass of wine, all is well with the world again. And I've had yet more food despite Mary completely filling me up over the last couple of days!

The bike bus is running late but I don't know by how much. At least they responded to my text this time. Fortunately it's well-lit outside given it's dark and, as usual with the bike bus pick-up points, there is no shelter whatsoever. It has been raining on and off today so I have my full set of waterproofs with me just in case. Luckily, it is warm as heck so I won't freeze :-))

Here's to a night of almost no sleep!!

Xxx

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Rest Day 2

Another fabulous rest day! Sunshine, pottering, chatting, eating - what else is there in life!? And Mary was a bit worried I'd be chatted out after my day with Lorraine - as if!!!

Max was chat, chat, chatting away. We were all chat, chat, chatting back. He's a very entertaining and adorable character :-))

We had planned to go to Thonon-les-Bains for lunch but Max had eaten 1 too many blackberries from the bushes as he helped his Dad mow the lawn and was unwell, poor lamb. So Mary and I took off to the local supermarket where I drooled over the choice of food. It has been somewhat limited in the mountains these last couple of weeks. And a fabulous lunch of local cheeses, tasty salad and incredible bread was produced. Yum!

And we pootled off to Thonon in the afternoon, which is on the shores of Lac Leman (Lake Geneva) for a stroll and, more importantly, some ice-creams. Max was back full of energy and happily played in the playground whilst we chat, chat, chatted a lot more over some drinks.

And tonight Mary is cooking a huge paella for us and some of their other friends who have come over to join in the food and fun! I know it will be another phenomenal meal :-))

So my holiday is now coming to an end. I can't quite believe it. It's been amazing! And when I think back to agonising whether I should cycle-tour in the Alps again - madness! The French Alps are my current adopted home!

I've got the morning here with Mary tomorrow, then the train from their local station to Lyon and finally catching the bike bus tomorrow evening arriving back into Wetherby and apparently the rain some time on Monday night.

Happy pedalling tomorrow Inters (and all Otley Cycle Club) and happy Sundays to everyone else :-))

Xxx

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Cycling from Chamonix to the Chatterbox Capital!!

I've finally found someone who chats more than me!!

3.5 year old Max definitely takes after his Mum, Mary, in the chatterbox stakes! Wow, we've nattered about all sorts already! Mary is putting him to bed now. Such a gorgeous little boy.

And another fantastic day for me on this tour! How lucky am I?

The day dawned beautifully. The snow capped mountains sparkled against powder blue skies and bright sunshine. It was utterly freezing! I stayed wrapped up in my sleeping bag to eat brekkie.

Thanks to bikes not being allowed on the main road from Chamonix, I ended up on stunning mountain roads through more spectacular, jaw-dropping scenery and through more exceptionally pretty mountain villages. And all in gorgeous, gorgeous hot sunshine.

The mountain road I was on was actually closed. I saw a few cyclists coming in the other direction and they said you could just about get through the closed road section. They were on road bikes and not carrying bulky panniers so I was a little concerned. It turned out it wasn't an issue at all. And the added benefit was no cars whatsoever - a dream!

I cycled to Cluses in the end to get the train to Mary's. Cruella the headwind was back and blowing rather unnecessarily viciously, I thought. And of course I was travelling in the same direction straight into Cruella for seemingly ever.

I turned up in Cluses and was buying my ticket with 1 minute to spare before the train arrived. Madame typed furiously away, steam coming off the keyboard, sweat pouring off her forehead so I could get that train. The next one was an hour later. There were a few comedy moments with me skidding through the train station with the metal on the bottom of my cycling shoes on tiled floors whilst trying to keep the bike upright at the same time and then flinging myself and the bike onto the train. Made it!

This train was then actually delayed a little later on - a French train delayed! I couldn't gather much from the announcement in rapid-fire French but they'd basically switched the electricity off so no train was going anywhere. It reduced the wait for my train in Annemasse and enabled me to eat my second lunch so it wasn't an issue.

And then I met Mary and Max (who had made a cake and a house out of stones whilst he was waiting - the cake was obviously bigger than the house...) waving wildly at their local railway station :-))

My greeting to them was me bent over my front wheel in concern as it had started grinding getting the bike off the train. Agh, panic!! I still needed to cycle to mary's house. It took a short while to discover the mudguard had been yanked out and had caught on the front wheel. Phew, easily sortable! Then I could say hello properly!

And since then Mary has been running around like a crazy thing whilst I've been looked after beautifully and allowed to completely relaaaax. She had even got some mini pastries in including, you guessed it, a mini pain aux raisins! Thank you fabulous Mary :-))

And oh, what food for dinner! An incredible caramelised fennel and onion tart with rocket salad and yummy bread followed by apple and blackberry crumble with apples and blackberries from their garden! I'm finally full!!

Hubby Rene has gone to a colleague's house-warming tonight so we've had a girls night in and a crumble party with Max.

Although it nearly is, this tour feels nowhere close to being over - there is still so much fun to be had!

Thank you again everyone for your lovely, lovely messages. Happy weekends y'all. And enjoy CavPav tomorrow, Otley cyclists.

Bye for now!

Andi xxx

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A Perfect Rest Day...with a HUGE Surprise at the end!! Part 3 of 3

So, I left the train at Les Praz and decided to walk into the village to see where I could buy some supplies tomorrow morning rather than heading straight back to the campsite.

In my own little world as usual, I heard someone call my name in absolute shock. It was only one of my best mates from university!!!!!!!

My family will recognise KC in the photo (Kathy). I knew she was holidaying in Switzerland/France but neither of us had any idea we'd be close enough to cross paths.

KC and I actually met on the first day of uni, were on the same degree course and shared a house for our 2nd and 3rd years. So this was an extraordinary and wonderful coincidence :-))

I'd had such an amazing day with Lorraine and couldn't believe it could get any better!

KC was with partner Graham and the chalet they were staying in was across the road so we managed a cuppa and catch up for 30 minutes. They had been on their way out for food in St Gervais which was a bit of a distance away and I didn't want to keep them. I know what a hungry tummy is like!

Poggle, we both say hi!!

So what an incredible day!

Although Lorraine and I had eaten so much during the day, I cooked a gorgeous ricotta and rocket ravioli for dinner with lots of fresh veggies and some tomato and vegetable sauce.

And I'm now drinking a bowl of tea again as I type up the blog tonight and the phone is charging at the same time. I was on emergency battery. I'm nearly topped up again now, phew! I'll need that to ensure I successfully meet Mary tomorrow!

So, as yet, I have no exact plan for tomorrow. I'll be cycling from here to somewhere that I can catch a train to Mary's. It's pitch black again now so route planning will have to wait until I find a nice cafe in a sunny spot tomorrow :-))

Lots of love to all of you for your continuing support and messages - they genuinely always make a massive difference to every day and I love hearing from you all :-))

Bye for now!

Andi xxx

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A Perfect Rest Day...with a HUGE surprise at the end!! Part 2 of 3

This photo is the view from my campsite that I woke up to this morning! WOW!! What a privilege to be here. I couldn't see this view last night in the dark. No wonder it was so cold!

And the "laying snow" I saw was the glacier!! And Mont Blanc!!

And so onto today....

We woke up to powder blue skies and glorious sunshine. Apparently everyone in Lorraine's walking group was delighted I'd brought the sunshine with me as it's been raining here for the best part of the week. I do bring sunshine with me wherever I go!!!

Lorraine was in a vest top; I was in a base layer, a t-shirt, a full fleece and with my fleece bodywarmer on top!! As the day warmed up, I lost most of the layers and zipped off to shorts. The temperature was showing into the early 20s and it was certainly hot in the sun but the mountain air still felt fresh and cool.

Lorraine and I pottered around, about and across the heart of Chamonix whilst indulging in a mega chat-athon.

Chamonix is a very pretty town and definitely bustling. Lorraine tried her first pain aux raisins, which got the thumbs up. We took photos of the famous climbing statue for Brian. We had a 2.5 hour pizza, salad and wine/beer lunch (lovely!). Afternoon tea came next. And we were still talking....

In fact, I was getting the train back just before 6pm and we still were nowhere near finished with our catching up! The day went so quickly but was so relaxed and thoroughly enjoyable. The hot sun shone for much of the day with some clouds gathering towards the end.

Lorraine did find it funny that I was so excited in the supermarket with the huge choice of food! I'm rarely in large towns and therefore buy what is available. This was a real treat :-))

We both had a brilliant time and kept pinching ourselves that we'd managed to meet up in fabulous Chamonix! How posh are we!

With massive hugs and even bigger smiles, we waved each other off as the mountain railway chugged away and took me closer to my campsite.

And then one of the biggest surprises and coincidences I've ever had happened (even Lorraine doesn't know about this yet)...

Onto part 3 of 3....!

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A Perfect Rest Day...with a HUGE surprise at the end!! Part 1 of 3.

I have just had the BEST REST DAY EVER!! In fact, I'm having the best holiday ever! It beats the misery of the attempted and then abandoned Lancashire cycle tour last August (ex-hurricane Bertha got in the way).

So, to finish the story from yesterday first. The trains in France are literally bang on to the second. So there was no issue getting the connections for all 3 trains. And I didn't need to scramble across platforms or anything; I just walked off one train and straight onto the next with my bike and all my belongings. The trains were not too full which helped. And the scenery was incredible.

The 3rd train of 3 was the mountain railway from St Gervais to Chamonix. I LOVED this ride! It was a bit like a rollercoaster ride - the tracks climbed up and down, the railway went round and round, clinging to the mountain edges and went over rushing rivers, past waterfalls and through seemingly enchanted forests, I swear!

I got the bike off at Chamonix Mont Blanc station as planned with the help of 3 lovely people. I saw Lorraine running along the platform waving and I waved madly back! Then I realised she was shouting "Get back on the train! Get back on the train!" I did as I was told and the 3 lovely (and now bemused) people helped get the bike back onto the train. Once Lorraine had got her breath back, she explained it would have been a mega long walk to the campsite from there.

So we stayed on the train the Les Praz and it was still a 15-20 minute walk in the nearly-dark to the campsite.

I was still in my Summer cycling clothes after a lovely warm pedal to Grenoble earlier. Lorraine gave me her fleece as apparently I was "turning blue". Grenoble had been 27 degrees, Chamonix was in single digits!! There was some laying snow.

I got my sopping wet, smelly tent up before it became pitch black and then left it to air as best I could. Lorraine and I had planned a lovely meal out but given the time and the rather freezing conditions, we went to the creperie stand for a rather incredible cheese and egg crepe which I then followed with a lemon and sugar crepe and Lorraine scoffed chocolate. Good girl!

The tea Lorraine ordered was the usual adventure. This time it came in 2 large bowls! That suited us perfectly so we drank tea from the bowls!

And, given the circumstances, we just howled with laughter at so many silly things. It was brilliant to see her again!

And to end the day's adventure, the campsite didn't seem to be able to contact any taxi company, so Lorraine got a lift in the creperie van back to her hostel!!

So, onto part 2 of 3........

PS The photo of Lorraine and me is us both enjoying a pizza lunch in Chamonix today.

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