Dear reader,
Next time I am offered the choice of pitches, remind me to check them out before picking one. Although the pitch was OK, it was on a slope and behind the hedge was a waterfall - you can only appreciate the silence when you are at the other end of the site....
This morning as I was packing the tent at 8:45 the new occupants for the pitch arrived !!! They will just have to wait I'm afraid ...
The chap next door in a french registered VW camper called in. He was Greg an retired American from Washington DC US of A... what a nice chap and we talked a while as I packed. The van was 35 years old and I was invited to look inside.... the chap was a "hoarder" but in a van ... you just could not get much more in .... he admitted that he had stuff in there that he has not used since 1986....
I eventually got going at about 9:45... heading for Soissons about 5 hours away.... a very pleasant ride up through the hills for the couple of hours then we hopped on the motorway towards Nancy and then Reims....for the last 2 times I have got to Reims we, (that is Gerty Garmin and I) have always missed the turn and have ended up riding through the middle of town ... this time we avoided Nancy and Reims.... yippee
We stopped a couple of times for fuel and something to eat and arrived here about 4pm.... tomorrow I will be mostly riding North, first to visit a great great uncle of mine, he died just 2 days before armistice day in 1918, and his grave is at the Commonwealth War Graves site at Englefontaine. Then I will ride up to the first campsite I stayed at on the night of the 20th June when I set out on this trip.... just to sort out kit and reflect a while on the trip, before riding to Calais and the Chunnel on Monday.....
I then have to get the bike sorted before taking it for an extended visit to the Honda garage... new drive shaft, new sprockets, new tyres..... and a service... whoops....
I think I will have done about 7800kms from setting out.....
Now to cook and wash.
Nite nite