Day One
- Arrived at the Folkestone’s Le Shuttle Terminal
- Met Nigel, Barry, Paul, Frank and Wayne
- Had a coffee and a chat, sorted a rough route
- And off to the train
- Stopped for passports Paul, Nigel, and Frank went through
- Barry on the other hand did a reverse summersault dismount pushing his bike over a sleeping policeman
- 10/10 for style
- No major damage, a scratch and a bruised ego (and no end of reminders- Editor)
- We got him up and went to the train
- We missed the one Nigel and co caught so loaded onto the next
- I asked if the others minded leading as I had little experience abroad
- So we set off, Barry up front (seasoned traveller, what could go wrong?)
- Straight onto the Peage - €8.50 !
- Sat nav malfunction
- Old dog, new tricks….. 😂
- So Wayne took the helm (new shiny BMW with working top spec. sat nav)
- We crawled our way through village after village
- Then a fantastic cross country lane
- Then back to the villages………
- The whole time my nav was saying turn right
- In the end we got it together
- Nigel had said one route is town after town the other is open fast roads (and when we got on them they were)
- We followed my nav until Nigel dropped us a pin via WhatsApp for the camp site
- We arrived, Wayne and Paul went off and found a hotel.
- Barry and I set up camp adjacent to Nigel and co.
- He makes a mean cup of coffee on his jet boil! luxury
- I checked out my accommodation
- TEMU quality 😂😂😂
- But that’s another story
- Tea and a beer
- Set the next days route
- Then bed
- ............For probably the most uncomfortable night of my life
Day Two
- At 3 am I was playing with MY ROUTE APP setting the route for the day
- I had my coffee boiling before Nigel was up
- (Apparently it’s very rare for anyone to do that……..)
- Strike camp and away
- A very slow day for me as I felt very tired
- Nigel dropped a pin for lunch
- I met them as they was finishing
- Had a quick coffee and off
- Hare and tortoise
- Eventually THEY caught ME up in a bus shelter in a rain storm as I was making coffee
- Then off to find the camp site
- That night pizza machine for tea as nothing else was seemingly open
- Completely automated
- Choose it, pop in your money and wait. And actually quite edible
- And as we walked back we found the open restaurants and bars……
- Slept like a log
Day Three
- Strike camp
- We set off together for breakfast
- Then I let them disappear into the sunrise
- Strangely soon to cross their path at a crossroad’s in a town again !
- The joys of sat nav
- We all had lunch together sharing ride stories like kids at Christmas opening their presents 😂
- We set off for the last leg
- I let them get away
- I feel I must have missed a turning for Florac
- And ended up circumnavigating the mountains dropping into the town on a lost goat path sharing the ‘road’ with some local donkeys !
- Got to the hotel, unloaded gear
- Set my tent up in the room to dry
- Then off for a beer and lunch
- I asked for advice on food
- Lisa rushed to my plight pointing to something on the menu and saying I would love it
- As I was about to order she buckled and in a fit of laughter showed me a picture of her previous encounter with this choice
- It looked like a pigs mouth
- But apparently it was a calves cheek
- As I always tell the kids to try stuff I ordered it anyway much to Paul’s disgust
- Tasted far better than it looked
- Thank the lord
Day Four
- After discussions with Paul about a chilled day we were joined by Frank and Mano
- They set off first
- We had a (hairpin) mountain to climb
- Large drops off one side, the other side a rock wall with oncoming traffic
- I must say I was well outside my comfort zone
- The oncoming traffic seemed safer than the drop back down the mountain !
- When I eventually reached the top I stopped for a drink and gave myself a little man-up chat
- Paul came back looking for me
- We decided we would just have a steady ride together
- Then we met Mano and Frank who had waited for us
- Mano was having none of it
- I told him I wanted to take some photos for home
- He lead off and I followed
- Beautiful roads
- Mano was waiting at every photo opportunity
- We chatted
- Then he gave me some good, one-on-one cornering practice
- We had comms on and he laughed at me
- Stay wide hold your line, hold your line until you see your exit
- Oh sh*t it’s got tighter, push handlebar
- Oh my, now we are low……
- A little excited scream 😂😂
- Made it
- Fab day riding on some fantastic roads
- Lessons
- Hold your line - positive throttle until you see your exit
- Don’t look down - look forward
- On the hairpins ease your back brake (so that’s how you do it )
- Fantastic ride, thanks Mano
- Beer
- Swim in the ice cold pool
- Lunch
Day Five
- Met up at the garage
- Gary and I were chatting about taking a nice steady day 😂
- Barry and Adrian where up for a ride but struggling with sat nav’s - we agreed to ride together and at the last minute Charles joined the group
- Florac, Mendes, Rodez
- And back
- Barry lead the day
- Followed by Adrian then Gary myself and Charles
- I was still struggling to stay wide
- Gary took some time to help
- Then I followed Adrian 70 years old and on the least powerful bike amongst us
- His lines were perfect, not a brake light to be seen
- A true lesson in corners
- The ride was in 2 parts as the weather was due to come in in the afternoon
- The rain started and we pulled over to put on waterproofs
- The others decided to short cut for home
- I decided that when I booked this holiday in my King’s Hospital bed a ‘bit of rain’ wouldn’t have bothered me at all
- So I said my goodbyes and off I went
- There was a fair bit of main road and a bit of motorway (I think that was a sat nav failure)
- I come across a large town with ample filtering to take part in
- I loved the red lights with count down timers - at about 5 it was safe to proceed down the outside of traffic and nip in at the front at 0
- I got to a small village turned left up a steep hill in the town with more hairpins
- As I got to a junction I looked at the nav and it showed a perfect curve around the village
- Must have been on adventure mode
- On the next stage I worked my way up into the forests in the mountains
- The rain was still coming down, I had water inside and outside my visor
- I had to lift my visor for better vision but then the rain hurt my face
- The views where fantastic mountains and buildings with steam coming up from the ground
- As I came around a bend in the woods I saw something large ahead, raised my visor to recognise a very large cow (with fair sized horns).
- I decided she wasn’t happy and was looking at me as if she was prepared to take me on - head on
- I got off the bike.
- A car went past he got out and found a gate in the fence
- We gently herded her back into her field
- Farmer turned up all very happy with our ranching prowess
- Back on the bike and weaving my way through the mountains
- On the decent I came across a small car following a pair of step-through mopeds
- Mopeds that were displaying great road craft
- As I got closer I saw the car was a ‘school of motoring’ car
- (Sat in the dry while the bikes fought on through the weather)
- Another long main road section
- At this point the sat nav was still showing about an hour to home
- I was thinking that was maybe an hour too much ……..
- Then we started to loose altitude
- I saw the hairpins on the sat nav then pulled over to take a video
- A large valley filled with cloud deep below I could just make out some houses
- I made my way down onto the fairly main road crossed the river at the bottom and started to climb a goat path just barely two cars wide
- As I climbed the rocks started to overhang in places the cloud had lifted so I took another video of a perfectly clear valley
- Fantastic
- Then across the D16 to home - a road on steroids
- Fantastic corners, no drops, occasional rocks and pine forests for effect
- What a ride for home
- Not an hour too much but the best ride of my life
- Home just before dinner
- Shower beer
- Excited chatter
- Bed
Day Six
- Eventually a very chilled day with Paul reversing yesterday’s route to the gorge
- Rode along the gorge back up and across country to a town for lunch
- To be joined by Nigel and Andreas
- Great chat about our routes
- A small battle to get Paul’s steak cremated
- Much to the ladies humour …..
- ‘Do you want your cheese and biscuits well done’? 😂😂😂😂
- We finished our 3 days in Florac with a well deserved beer and debrief with some of the crew
- Fantastic trip
- Lovely hotel
- Reasonable food (Perhaps best not to try eating the face of a cow – Editor)
- Top company, many were ‘time served’
- And roads with few straights
….and then we came home. The End.
(only it won’t be because we will go back!)
