La France
First of all, an apology. I can’t seem to do short and concise travel reports. So for those, that don’t want to trawl through the complete trip. I’ll do a short version for you.
Short Version:- Went to France with some mates. Met some fantastic people. Saw some ace stuff. Had a brill time. Came home.
Now For The Full Version:-
I should be writing about the Alps and Croatia. But I’m not. It’s a trip to France. I did think of another title. ‘B*****s to Covid’. But I didn’t think would sit too well and might offend some genteel folk. So La France it is.
Not that adventurous I know, but to be honest I was just happy to get away somewhere foreign, on a bike.
About seven years ago me and the biking pals had travelled to the Dordoigne region . On C90’s. We had a brilliant time/trip and I promised Mrs Bogger, that the next year I would take her to the same tiny campsite, in Bouzic.
I kept my promise to Mrs Bogger and whilst at the Bouzic site I met, befriended and kept in touch with a French chap and his family. 4yrs ago myself and Mrs Bogger visited them in their home village of Malestroit, in Brittany and had a brilliant time.
I’d promised over the past couple of years to visit again, but as I said earlier something got it the way.
So France it was, instead of Croatia. Mainly due to it being just post C**** . All of us were astride mighty 125’s.
Firstly to the Normandy region, then down to Brittany to visit my French friend and family and tour the local area.
There should have been five of us, but sadly one of the team had to back out sometime before all the arrangements were made. My French pal said he would take the week off work to show us around when we got to Malestroit.
The four of us who went, are not from the same area, we are literally hundreds of miles apart. Nige and Jason, brothers, are from South Wales, Mark (Fat Boy) is near Royal Wooton Basset and I’m near Wigan.
So dates were set and I did a bit of research on the Normandy area, on WW2 sites, or other places of interest, that we had not visited before.
We were to cross from Newhaven to Dieppe and it was to be a ten day trip in total.
Three of us had booked the ferry in good time. Nige due to circumstances beyond his control had to book much later and as a result could not catch the same ferry as ourselves. He had to catch the overnight ferry the evening before us.
Our ferry was fairly early in the morning on the Thursday, so the three of us elected to stay at a Travel Lodge on the Wednesday night, so as to be not completely knackered at the start of the trip.
We chose Dorking for our overnight stay. For no other reason other than it broke the back of the journey South. Then the trip to Newhaven should be a relaxed bimble the next morning.
I was pleasantly surprised that we chose Dorking. I have to say it was quite a pleasant small town.
I had the furthest to travel and Dorking was 226 miles from my starting point which unfortunately was work. I’d managed to wangle a very early finish at midday on the Wednesday to try to get to Dorking at a reasonable hour. So I duly set off from home, fully loaded for work on the Wednesday morning with everything I needed for a ten day camping trip.
Thankfully I set off from work dead on 12.00pm, but almost as soon as I hit the M6 south, at Thelwall, there were long queues. Oh Lord, what time am I going to reach Dorking? It took me an hour to get to Stoke on Trent and I was behind my schedule.
Not to worry the traffic had mainly cleared and I wound the C125 to a 60mph cruising speed. A bloke came past on a large Kawasaki sports tourer and proceeded to shake his head as he came past me. I’m still not sure if it was in disbelief or anger. Possibly both?
The miles trundled by and I kept an eye on the fuel gauge. The Cub only holds 3.7ltr in total. I opted for the Birmingham toll road so as to keep the average speed up. Once on the toll I pulled into the first service station and topped up the tank from my 3ltr spare can. Within five minutes I was on my way again. Motorways are boring , but when clear, you can make decent progress. Just before the M25 I refilled the tank and topped up my container. I haven’t got a sat nav and knew the way by memorising the route from google maps. Obviously the M25 was chocca as it was now 4.30pm. I did a bit of cautious filtering and was soon turning off for Leatherhead/Dorking. Oh by the way my arse was killing me.
It was now 5.30 pm and out of the three of us I was the first to arrive. Right next to the Travelodge was a Tesco express and they both shared the same car park. It was very busy. In fact it was so busy I moved the bike twice for fear of it being knocked over. Once happy, I unloaded and booked in. I’d had a shower and got a meal deal from Tesco before Fat boy hoves into sight. As I’m helping him in with his luggage he confesses to a little mishap?
Apparently whilst fueling up, just half a mile down the road, his C125 topples over into the petrol pump and smashes the top off his expensive screen. Tit.
Fatboys Broken Screen
We elect to park the bikes round the back of the Hotel next to the bins. It’s out of sight and there are no other vehicles there. We effect a repair to his screen and walk back round to the front to be greeted by Jason astride his CG125.
Jason Arrives
He’s also dropped his bike the previous day and snapped half of the brake lever off and bent the rear brake pedal. I’m blessed with idiots. Good mates though!
What to do then? Well off to the pub, or should I say pubs then. We saunter into Dorking and at the first pub Fat Boy says he will get the first round in. I dunno how, but he pleads poverty and actually gets a discount off his round?? Hows that work? Further into town and in the next pub, it’s Karaoke. Good Lord, get us out of here. Why oh why do people think they can sing.
The next and last pub is really nice and as it’s such a warm evening we decide to go to the beer garden. It’s probably the best beer garden I’ve ever been in. All around the perimeter are brightly coloured and lit, open drinking/ socialising booths. Really, really, nice.
Proper Beer Garden In Dorking
devil may cry 5 wallpaper downloadOk it’s getting late. Time for a curry then time for bed we’ve got a fairly busy day tomorrow.
Once back in the Hotel room were lying in bed. No, not the same bed and Fat Boy says ‘ I wonder if the bikes are ok?’ Jason replies ‘I can’t see them but they sound ok to me’.
Good grief. Good night.
