We arrived in Calais at 11:15am local time. The unsung hero tour support driver, Peter (my father in law), had to disembark the Ferry with all of our luggage(See pic below). God bless him. Meanwhile, Alex and I had a security escort as we cycled our bikes off the ferry and out of port. We then had to cycle back into port to help/collect Pete and pick up the hire car. 
The hire car documents and hiring process took for ever, and then we needed to load the car with the kit and get our cycling gear on. We finally set off at 1pm with 73 miles to complete down to Bethune. It rained most of the way, but it failed to dampen our spirits.Here's a few pics of moments along the way.
Alex my co rider looking every month of his 19 years
Me enjoying the canal side boulevard:-
Pit stop, but which eclair first?
First puncture since london(146 miles.....)
The cathedral at today's end point Air-sur-la-Lys
Given the late start out of Calais, we have called it a day after 60 miles, which is 10 miles short of today's intended destination. This means we will be cycling 90 miles tomorrow into Ronse, Belgium, but we will be up and ready to go by 9am tomorrow, so we plan 50 miles in the am, lunch at midday, and 40 in the afternoon. That's the theory....:-)
Feeling good though, typing that and thinking my shoulders are feeling tight. Where's my roller?
One last thing, thank you again to everyone who came along to Buckingham Palace and Sittingbourne yesterday, I was quite choked up/overwhelmed by it all by the time I left Sittingbourne. It certainly gave us all a huge lift, which it turned out we needed as our detour took us over a1400m ascent through the hills of kent!
Til tomorrow , Brett x
Sherpa Pete -as he shall be called from now on - looks like he is really enjoying himself -I reckon he wishes he was cycling!!
ReplyDeleteKeep it up chaps!!
Well done mate... lay off the eclairs or you'll need more loo stops than planned for ;-)
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