Wallis On Wheels Big Bicycle Adventure

So the big day finally turns up. The bike is packed and I’m ready to go. Here I am doing an impression of The A team’s Colonel John ‘Hannibal’ Smith “I love it when plan comes together” with a chocolate cigarette bought by the secretary from the company I was working for.

As I was meeting my parents at my twin sister’s house in Guilford on the Sunday I decided to make departure from my house a solo affair, so as not to emphasize the fact that I wouldn’t be back for a year (or several). This way it appeared like any other day, well, apart from the extra weight of the bike!


The emotional moment of farewell. Saying ‘see you soon’ to my parents and twin sister. As Arnie once said ‘I’ll be back'.
   
The ride from Gomshall to Portsmouth was full of the expected mini roller-coaster up and down hills, oh, and of course the wonderful English summer weather, from mid-day onwards it rained, rained and rained, and then some more. I had planned to camp every night but upon arriving at Portsmouth there was only one option I had in mind, a cheap pub BnB
 
Cycling away from Le Havre ferry terminal my Cape Town sign, hanging from the tail end of my mudguard, had been spotted by another tourer, of which initiated conversation. Tom, informed me he had ridden this in 2003-6, and with the lure of what is on offer in many of the countries that I’d be there for more than a year, having no time frame meant this could be possible. We also met up with a girl who was riding to Paris, so we all rode together to Le Pont de Normandy, which once held the world record for the longest cable-stayed bridge (now beaten by a bridge in Hiroshima, Japan).
 
As the three of said ‘Au revoir’ it wasn’t long before the edge of those UK showers took hold, and not wanting a repeat of the previous day I decided to also put the over-shoes on. With the rain here to stay & soaking wet again, mainly with perspiration, & annoyance that two of the first three days had been drenchers it was time for a Chambre de hotes, OK, my tent only rule will take effect, soon!
 
My initial route plan was to visit my friend, Remi, and his family, in Le Havre, then head west to follow the coast to the town of Pau, climbing over the Pyrenees into Spain, then south-east to Barcelona for the ferry to Majorca to see another friend. The west coast of France plan went out the window when I found my French mate had moved to Pertuis, near Marseille, of where I am at present.

France has such a varying landscape. The north is farms, farms, and farms of hedgerow-less fields, which can make ‘free-camping’ almost impossible, but I managed to solve that problem one night when I was in ‘no-wheresville’ and found a dead quiet campsite, complete with a fresh water tap for bottle refill and pasta dinner.
 
 
I was heading for the Massif Central mountain range by the city of Moulins and Saint Etienne. By far the a biggest range but with my bike weighing in at more than what I’ve been used to, & the southern sun showing up it certainly sucks the water from the bottles, here I used my Katadyn water-filter a couple of times to bottle some river water. The highest climb was Col de Peyruergue at 820m, with three others the following day at just under this. Getting close to Saint Eitienne I was told there was a campsite in the city centre, but unfortunately when I got into the city found it had since closed down, so in the end made do with free camping close to a periphery village, several miles out from the city, after an exhaustive climb up at 3120ft, though the view of the city was worth it.