First few days on the road

I’m finally doing it – sitting in a camp site with my laptop balanced on my metal box, next to my tent and writing up my blog while I worry about my battery lasting and not much else. This is finally the dream come true. It’s brilliant. A Wednesday evening and I’m in a cute French wooded area listening to children play and bugs in the trees.

Saturday 8th July
We spent the day with Stand up for Africa at the Rise Festival in Finsbury Park. I hope we managed to raise some money towards the Uganda project. It’s very hard to tell when there was the expense of the event and all I saw was small change being tossed into rather large buckets that remained fairly empty. To my knowledge, there is still no corporate sponsor and still not a peep out of BMW. I do honestly understand the corporate side of things as I was, after all, a marketing manager myself. It doesn’t change the fact; I really want this project to happen.

We had our bikes on the SUFA stand and so got to speak to many people. I really enjoyed meeting so many people and talking about motorbikes and the trip. It was the first time I got to say “Tomorrow” to the question, “When are you leaving?” and it felt great. Must admit that there were a few responses to our little adventure that made me realise that what had become such a normal idea to us, was actually quite an extraordinary event – but no nerves at all – not yet!

Sunday 9th July
Our departure day finally arrived. Paul had been up most of the night but I fell asleep while trying to load music onto the laptop and so gave up and went to bed. I figured, what wasn’t done by then, was really too late. We woke up at 6am and rushed about in a sleepy kind of rush. Anything that wasn’t sorted out either got stuffed onto the bike or just binned. It felt like hours of trying to get the stuff to fit and all the time I worried about getting to the ferry on time.

Fortunately saying goodbye to Paul’s folks was really quick. I felt really sad for them and Paul as we said rushed goodbyes. I know they will miss Paul a lot but, we are only a phone call away and we will visit in due time. My parents had called a few times, and I know how excited they are to have me moving closer to them. It’s a toughie.

We finally set off with huge bundles precariously bungeed on behind us. Our bikes are so heavy and we aren’t used to the extra weight so most manoeuvring is very difficult and we wobble all over. Paul’s bike has a really bad wobble at high speeds and my bike’s mountain on the back was catching side winds.

We arrived at Dover with time to collect our money – just. The best rates were with Travelex and bought online. You need to collect from an airport or port.

That is when the trip really began! We watched the white cliffs of Dover get smaller and the coast of France get closer. It rained and was windy – typical UK weather to set us on our way. We were too excited to be tired but I could feel the exhaustion of the last few weeks. When I’m really tired I have a very short temper and so when I got mad because I couldn’t find lippy – that was fatigue talking.

Well! France! The little maps SUFA made for us are great. From day one we had bikers pull over to look at our maps and wave us on. It’s a brilliant idea and speaks all languages – and explains the state of us and the bikes. I don’t speak a word of French so have really appreciated the smiles and nods of French people who figure out what we are doing. I lie, by now I do speak a few words of French. I can say cow, hello, dog and thank you.

Monday 10th July
The dodgy weather seemed to be behind us. We had blazing hot sun and by 10am we were melting. My headlight had gone which required taking the indicators and front of the bike apart. This added on at least an hour. We then unpacked and packed again until 1pm when we decided to just go. I mean, we needed to get more organised but we also just needed to get going. We had only done 100 miles the day before and I didn’t think we would get much further if we spent the whole day playing with gear.

The countryside was beautiful. We stuck to the A roads and avoided cities and motorways. The cities tended to be a bit busy, rushed and when we had the idyllic country to pootle through, why not?

The full biking gear was hot and I mean it HOT. We were really sweating underneath which meant stopping was avoided completely. That in many ways defeated the point of travel! We were really thankful for our zip-off dragging jeans and camelpacks.

Tuesday 11th July
We made an early start – 10am on the road. This was much cooler and we made good progress. We did the 300 miles we thought would be possible to do daily. Possible yes but with one aching butt for sure. Because we’re on the A roads, it’s slower, so longer in the saddle. On the up side, we get to drive at a speed we can really look at the scenery and notice things.

Bordeaux region is just so pretty. We found a wooded campsite in St. Symphorien. I got off my bike, staggering a bit like a bowlegged cowboy wearing Robocop boots and finally the holiday mode set in. I said to Paul, “Is there any where we need to be? Let’s start enjoying where we are right now and stop rushing.” And so with that, we decided to have a rest day.

And so here we are. I’m flicking bugs off my laptop and Paul is still fiddling with the walkie-talkie system that refuses to work. This is what it is all about and we’re loving it.