Day 1: Fri 27th June 2009
Ride: Bewdley to Nice - 228 miles
Last night over a few pre-tour beers it was agreed that we needed an early start this morning - we settled on meeting up at Kyle's house at 7.00am. It's about 220 miles, or an easy 4 hours, from Bewdley to Dover, and we had a lunchtime crossing booked.
The first to arrive were Gaz on his Blackbird (L), Pete on his brand new GTR1400 (R)
And Chris B - on his new Boxer Cup
The weather this morning was superb, blue skies and sunny, and for those that arrived on time there was a cup of tea and sausage sandwich waiting - thank you Kay. And for those that didn't they had to wait until Dover for breakfast.
Dover, and for some the second fuel stop of the day - but the last one until Briancon
Unlike the farcical ride down to Dover on our 2006 tour to Chamonix Mont-Blanc, the ride down this year was uneventful with all of us arriving pretty much together. We all fuelled up just outside the ferry terminal, then checked in and waited for our P&O crossing to Calais.
Chris B looks on (L) while Gaz gets a massage on the ferry (R)
The ferry got into Calais just after 3.00pm and we rode round to the Motorrail terminal - it's close to the main Calais station - to check in. Once you're in you can't get out except by foot so you need to stock up on food and drink for the journey before you get there. You can buy a picnic type meal and wine to take on board the train, and you can buy wine by the half bottle on board, but there is no restaurant car, only a buffet car and the service is limited.
The train only runs in the summer months and clearly hasn't had much invested in it for a number of years. Compared with the Santander ferry it rates poorly in both cost - £265 one way per bike against £240 return on the ferry - and amenities - you have the full run of bars and restaurants on the ferry, and even a cinema! The cost is calculated as £530 for a car and 4 passengers in a 4 berth couchette - and 2 bikes take up the same space as one car so you split the cost between 2.
Having said that it does cut out about 900 miles of riding, of which 500-600 miles is quite tedious. We reckoned that petrol, an overnight stop in a hotel and peage charges would have cost about £200 so the net cost was about £60-£70, and we avoided squaring off the rear tyre and some wear and tear.
Getting the bikes loaded onto the train takes a bit of time - actually it's securing them that takes the time. Unfortunately no photos but we were more concerned that everything was secure and the bikes weren't going to be damaged.
The train departs Calais at 6.05pm and arrives in Nice the following morning at 9.58am - so what to do for the next 16 hours? The journey started off quietly enough in the buffet. We ate our picnic and discussed tomorrows ride from Nice to Briancon over a few beers. And then we decamped to Pete and Gaz's couchette where the wine started flowing and it all went downhill.
Cat and Phil bonding (L) and Kyle and Pete have clearly had enough (R)
And the stagger back to our couchettes
No one has any idea what time we wrapped it up.
