It just so happened that at the same time I needed a break from the MIL’s house (we have been living in a bedroom with 2 single beds for over a year now – without cupboards and living out of suitcases and a few plastic storage boxes in the garage)
Jenni knew I’d been climbing walls and needed to escape so she suggested I take the bike and go and have a break…
Now my good friend Rian (Grizz) came to the end of his work contract and was effectively “unemployed” …….. so I took a chance and SMS’d him a suggestion about maybe doing a quick trip to France. Expecting him to decline – but it was a speedy response after he received his wife’s blessing to go!
WOW!!! What a lady!!
Rian needed to do a bit of a shake-down for his prep for his planned trip to SA next year. Not much to shake down really – more that he needed more time in the saddle to stiffen up and tone his backside for the anticipated long saddle days.
The plan for France was…….. well NOT to have any plans…. and best of all was that neither of us had travelled to Europe by bike before…….. so riding on the “wrong” or should I say Right side of the road was not only going to be a new experience (we’d both done it by car before) – but will be darn right interesting.
We wanted to just go – no route planning, no accommodation at all………… everything would be spur-of-the moment.
So we agreed on Tuesday the 11th for the outward trip and that we should return sometime on the Friday. A mere 4 days but at least this way we’d get a break – stay away from the weekend madness and still ensure we’re back to spend the weekend with our wives.
A quick search on the Internet provided us with some “Discount Codes” for the various Ferry companies – with P&O Ferries giving us the best rate of only £32.00 per motorcycle & rider for a return trip.
Now a quick conversion meant it was around R 425.00 for the return trip…….. not bad at all considering that it was a nice cruise, relaxing enough to allow us to try and make some sort of plan for the road ahead….. and where else could you get such a fantastic deal to travel across the waters to another continent!
There was ONLY one downside to the trip………. there was rain forecast for the whole of France and as we had talked of maybe camping, this would put a damper on our limited finances if we were forced into more “upmarket” accommodation.
I ended up packing everything I needed and headed over to Grizz’s Pad the night before so we could do a final check, have a braai (
thanks boet – you outdid yourself with the meat!) and get up at 4am for the dash down to Dover for the ferry that left at 6am.
JUST LOOK AT THAT STEAK!!!!!!!! :drif: :drif: :drif:
You know that you’re excited ….when there’s just no flippen way that you can sleep!
I got up at 3:30am and managed to get some of my goodies sorted before Rian went downstairs to put the kettle on. Funny though… THIS morning should have been ringing the warning bells as to Grizz’s sleeping habits as Nicola was downstairs fast asleep on the couch in their lounge.
(
Later I was to find out that this is her favourite place to sleep – Rian’s unbelievable snoring has serious repercussions)
Hiding in amongst the clothing & kit…………
Got dressed with full liners, waterproofs and buff against the impending cold and wet …. Felt like the Michelin man!
Slugging down a few cuppa’s and we were ready to push the bikes from the garage (
no noise this time of the morning…) Weather was very overcast, ground wet and snotty like a slug-without-a-shell….. but we were like two kids with our new toys.
So not bad timing at all….. we roared off towards the freeway and the Dover coast at exactly 4:45am
Needless to say – our “dry-spell” did not last too long and soon the rain started pelting down. Fortunately the freeway’s were pretty clear and we made good time down to our destination.
Check-in time for the 06:20 ferry was 6am and we arrived with 10 minutes to spare…. And we received our boarding passes that indicated we were allowed to jump the queue’s and board first! Now that ‘s service!!
As Grizz called it…. “Stupid-o-clock” in the morning!!
One thing I have to comment on is the huge benefit of having Comms between the two riders.
Not only was this proving very beneficial on this leg to the coast (when traffic got heavy and we were separated – it was great to still be able to advise each other when & where there were traffic and road dangers. I’d say that even at a 2 Mile distance – our communications were still 7-out-of-10)
This was Rian’s first taste of Bike-2-Bike and he was loving it!
We arrived in Calais around 8am (
7am UK time as France is an hour ahead) and decided right away to turn South – however we were going to avoid Motorways as much as possible.
Riding through Calais, we then turned off towards a small area called COQUELLES, where we stopped to check camera equipment and try to set the GPS for our route down the coast. We also on the spur-of-the-moment decided that DIEPPE was going to be a destination…. No specific reason, just that it was a decent distance and the name jumped out from the map!
We started off on the E402 in a southerly direction towards
BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, then
FORT-MAHON BEACH and afterwards
LE HOURDEL,
LE TREPORT and finally
DIEPPE.
The map shows the routing with the places listed.
Our first stop (
not really - just a lay-bye) was
Esplanade de Sainte-Cécile, Camiers
History (From WIKI)
Camiers belonged to the Lordship of Noailles. However the waters of the lagoon between the dunes and the shore of the solid geology, for many years, presented an obstacle to its development.During the First World War the flat lands were the site of the huge base depôt of the British army in France. It is usually known nowadays as Étaples camp. Through most of the war, close to it and part of the same complex, Camiers camp was the base depôt, in France, of the Machine Gun Corps.
Deserted parking area’s allow for perfect freedom with the bikes. A good view of the nice dark clouds awaiting us in the direction we’re travelling.
Massive beaches…………..
Grizz & I were sitting just contemplating the sheer size and totally exposed beaches that we were seeing – fantastic !
The next stop was
Fort Mahon Plage (PICARDIE REGION)
History (From WIKI)
Fort-Mahon-Plage is not a very old town. It seems certain that it did not exist before the 18th century, except, of course, the superb sand dunes and the sea. Then considered rather cold and wild, this part of the coast would have welcomed only fishermen and shellfish gatherers. Indeed, the first town was raised there only a little more than two centuries ago, with a few small shepherds’ huts in 1790. Fort-Mahon-Plage was not considered a commune at all until 1923, when it was officially identified as a separate village from its neighbour Quend-Plage-Les-Pins. Urbanization was steady, notably in the 1950s, with the immense beach of fine sand, in contrast to many of the pebble beaches of Normandy, doing a lot to attract tourists, as well as a soft and pleasant sea during the summer. The huge beach later became famous for its water activities, most notably land-yacht racing, wind-surfing and kiting. …….. a town that has huge beaches that were actively used during the Normandy Landings. Now however these vast sandy beaches cater more for tourists and sun-lovers.
The Main road looking up from the beach area….
What I immediately loved about this place were the older vehicles ambling along……… the place was exceptionally clean and definitely worth a visit again.
A Renault 2CV Panelvan – still in daily use
A French Saviem 4x4 Truck (nice…)
Not forgetting our VW lovers…….
And old Grizz……… on the phone! A pose that I’d come to recognise…. Often!
We spent some time just to relax and then also visited the Tourist Information office. Struggling to communicate with the limited French I know and the limited English that the chap behind the counter knew… was soon resolved when Grizz and I joked in Afrikaans. The attitude quickly changed once they discovered we were Saffers and not the “Dreaded Anglaise” from across the channel.
We were also handed some really nice commemorative stickers for the panniers!
There was a bit of sunshine now and we decided to head on down the road to see what else attracted our fancy. This was great – with no set route or time we could really enjoy the riding. Kak-praat is also something that goes hand-in-hand with two blokes riding nowhere – something which I thoroughly enjoyed with old Grizz.
We noticed a huge bay-area as well as what appeared as a lighthouse in the distance… so a bit of confer and we ended up in a very small village (
more like a clump of houses) ………
So our next on the list was
Le Hourdel
No real history on this place apart from the fact that it used to be a small fishing village but now seems pretty deserted…. Possibly kept alive by the odd tourists.
Parked at the lighthouse…
Up the main street……..(not much there)
……. And Grizz in one of his famous poses….
We did not stay long before we started down the road again. Our asses were itching to get to Dieppe – mainly to get settled as neither of us had a good night’s sleep before the ferry trip. And we did not want to ride on foreign roads without our wits about.
I decided to ride ahead as Rian wanted to check out an old church – this was another situation where the 2-way radios showed their worth…. Rian could stop and tell me what he was doing – I merely carried on about 2 or 3 miles ahead of him, stopping for a few pics and then waiting for the man to come riding along for some action shots.
……….. mmmmmm we’re tired!!
This pic shows Rian pulling over on the left-side just before a bend in the road – suddenly realising he should be on the other side…. A few laughs indeed!
