Sunday morning dawned calm with hazy sunshine, so we got our obligatory photos with the Med as background and then started to go our separate ways. 10 of us rode up to the pick-up point for the European Bike Express and the hung around an industrial estate until it arrived more or less on time at 15.00. It is a very clever means of transport, with the bikes safely racked up in the trailer and only the handlebars needing to be turned. The panniers wedge in round the wheels and they are ordered for ease of removal at the various drop-off points in the UK. Then followed 20 hours on the coach, laughingly described as 'luxury, club class, air conditioned accommodation for cyclists' - basically a coach with insufficient room, a toilet that required advanced gymnastic skills to enter or leave (we didn't try as there were enough breaks and we were still dehydrated from the ride) and an air con/ heating system that froze you overnight and left you to boil to death during the day.
There was a problem with the gears and we just missed a ferry in Calais, so it was 3 hours behind schedule when it got to Dover. We decided to bail out there and start 6.5 hour trek back to Bristol. Bikes reloaded we set off for Dover station just as the heavens opened, so were saturated by the time we got to Dover Priory - just as the train to Victoria pulled out of the station. Rather than wait an hour in sodden gear we hopped on a train to Charing Cross, which was mercifully quiet so we were able to keep the panniers on the bike and hang our jackets up to dry. It was 2 hours to Charing X during which it hardly rained, but as soon as we pushed the bikes out on to the Strand the next downpour began. Then followed a mad dash across central London, with the Mechanic hanging on to my back wheel so he didn't get lost (obviously that last statement should not be taken too literally or I would be in the cells and he would be in hospital).
Were too late for the last really cheap train to Bristol, but with seconds to spare and still dripping wet, we got the bikes on the 15.15 train and were back in Bristol at 16.45, with just the final ride home, the mountain of post 16 messages on the answer machine. We didn't even try to unpack!
So overall 1,500 miles traveled, around 80,000 ft of ascent, 2 punctures both on the Mechanics bike, a failed rear wheel on mine, the Pyrenean Traverse completed, several squillion calories consumed and even more used- we have both lost around 6 lbs in weight.
Shower technology in south-west France needs some input and why on earth are they still using bolsters instead of pillows. Nearly all the later hotels had nasty narrow bolsters ( not as deep as your head) some of which appeared to have been filled with rocks from the nearby hills. However the showers remain a mystery. Why would you create an en suite bathroom with no bath, just a shower cubicle, and then equip the shower cubicle with a hand held shower? The added problem was that some of the cubicles were so small that using a hand held shower us only for the truly acrobatic. Even better was the hotel that having installed the shower cubicle and found a shower with a fitting to attach the shower to the wall, the welded the wall fitting to the taps!! Finally we had the rooms which had obviously managed with just a bath for years, but had fitted a shower over it - without a shower curtain - thereby ensuring that he first person having their shower flooded he bathroom, soaked all the towels and most of their own clothes. Happy Days!!!!
Anyway I'm signing off now and starting to plan the next adventure. Thanks for following the ups and downs(!!!!!) of our trip and hope to see at least some of you soon. A last few photos appear below
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