Showered, fed and relieved in Calais

We made it to the ferry and thence to the Hotel in Calais – just in time and, apart from a wheel nut from Paul’s bike (his excuse for getting a lift in a builder’s van for the last few miles) intact.  No injuries, which is the main thing.

It was quite a day.  The riders left on time at about 9am from the Macmillan Cancer Support HQ, which happens to be right next to MI6 Headquarters, which probably explains why one of the WiFi networks I encountered when I posted the Team Photo yesterday was called “Keep Your Nose Out”.  It was raining steadily and the traffic was, well, London, but were they daunted?  I suppose the real answer is they were all more than a little anxious, setting off on a barmpot adventure like this one.

I stayed back for half an hour or so because the nice Jobsworth who had been initially somewhat unhelpful had warmed to us and let me use his Building’sa WiFi, then I set off too, or tried to.

Those of with experience of satnav will know that high buildings and trees obstruct the signal and I eventually resorted to turning the same way the bikes had done and following signposts for the first ten minutes, till the satnav caught up.   I saw several landmarks including Lambeth Palace and the Imperial War Museum, which apparently the riders didn’t pass, so were were on different routes already.

I took my first wrong turning at the Elephant & Castle so decided to do a three point turn to retrace my steps, which with a big Volvo fitted with a four-bike rack on the back, was almost the equivalent to turning the QueenMary.  Strange thing about London Traffic is that there are traffic jams or empty roads, fortunately the turn was completed without difficulty in an empty road.

Slow progress for me in traffic meant I had no hope of catching the riders up quickly and indeed I didn’t see them again at all until the first Drink Stop, which the satnav got me to by about 1045 and where they arrived, together and smiling in spite of the rain, only five minutes later.  We abandoned Plan A (there was to be lots of that) in favour of a hot drink in a cafe somewhere so I drove ahead and found a Carvery Pub, which happily agreed to served hot drinks to the Team.

I neglected to mention that they were all grubby and dripping wet  which was perhaps just as well.  The second Jobsworth of the day ostentatiously put out a “Wet Floor” sign neat the door as soon as they’s traipsed in.  Hot chocolates almost all round and within 30 minutes they were off again.  Wet but still smiling.

Team Huddle at the start

I overtook them to get ahead to the lunch stop to do a recce and found it without too much difficulty but it turned out to be a restaurant rather than a pub and it was among some pretty tortuous country lanes so i tried to ring Ben to divert him.  No contact so I went back to what i thought was the route to park up and wait, figuring he would ring me either from the Restaurant or from somewhere when he picked up the message.  His ETA for the lunch stop came and went with no call so I resorted to a cup of tea in a roadside cafe I had found and was still hoping they would come upon too.

Not such luck and it was about 2.30pm when I got the call from Ben.  They were clearly on a different road and had lost two riders already.  I went to find the village they had named and caught up by asking the locals if they’d seen any lunatics on bicycles.  Oh yes, they said, they went that way, and pointed.

Paul - hair by cycling hat

I got ahead again to locate a layby, which was actually little more than a wise entrance to a farm but it did have a small wood nearby, which I thought might come in handy, which it did.  By now it was 3pm.  Thankfully the rain had stopped so out came the picnic table and the sandwiches Hilly had made the previous day.  They topped up their drinking bottles and after a remarkably quick break were off again.

I had checked the route and found the explanation for the different versions and Ben had been on the right one, but the country roads were too country (narrow and with debris if not grass along the middle) so it was hard going.  I suggested a route back to the main road and after a couple of scenic diversions we made it to the A2, so I dispatched the group of six on a straight road to Dover in the hope of catching up time and set off briskly to locate Paul, whose bike had developed a fault and so he needed picking up in Lidden.

A slighty damp send off

Lidden turned out not to exist and without a paper map I couldn’t search for likely alternatives.  It turned out to be Lydden, but by the time I got this message Paul had solved his problem so the two strays, Doug and Paul, were actually already in or on their way to the Ferry Terminal.

The photgenic Franchesca kissing Daddy farewell

So I went back down the A2 to check on the others and waited some time before one and then another paired passed me in a layby.  Then came the call that the other three felt the A2 traffic (lots of lorries) was too intimidating, so would I pick them up.

This presented two problems.  Firstly the A2 is a busy dual carriageway and only has limited entries and exits, so you can’t just come off and reverse directions like on a motorway.  So I had to drive towards Dover, then drive back past them, then turn again to locate them.  had it not been for Liz’s bright pink jacket I might have missed them in the traffic, that’s how busy and threatening it was.

Will - do I really want to do this?

The second problem was that the car was full of gear and there were no spare seats, so we had to unpack some of the luggage and transfer it to the roof box and even then only managed to create space for two people to sit,. so PK and his wife Liz had to get very close indeed to squeeze into one of them.  We made it to Dover with a few minutes to spare and the nice lady at the Check In booth was very flexible in swapping the booking over to let them stay in the car to board – otherwise there would not have been time for them to check in separately, it was that close.

On board we went, when I discovered just how cramped PK and Liz had been in the back because we more or less had to untangle them to get them out.  Not the thing to have to resort to with tired muscles which would cramp up but it couldn’t be helped.

Dave pears surviving the A2 Traffic

The Ship’s Bar was treated to a display of ventilating sweaty feet with displays of stretching, posturing and massaging (this most by Liz of PK it must be said) while we all unwound.  Plans to eat on board were abandoned in favour of the Hotel and because of the time difference we just made it down again after a shower in time to order food.  No one was interested in doing anything except getting to bed.

Lessons learned, I bought a road atlas, we have worked out how to stick together and stay in touch better and today, as I write this at 6am, is another day.