Dispair then hope!

Yeah you might have read 13 wrong turns in 25 miles in the last blog entry… ponder a moment on that soul destroying image… then add to the mix the fact that I had only eaten one sandwich since departing Scotland and we were now a couple of hours of cycling into our first, 66 mile leg of the London to Paris journey.  Newhaven ferry terminal seemed far away.

I was also needing the loo!

I begged my friend to stop at a pub we were passing in a village.  We had a quick free loo stop – no one challenged us while we were borrowing the facilities thank goodness!  I filled up my empty water bottles with water and headed back out to have a look at the Garmin.  We had tested it before this trip.  We’d programmed a little route round the block and it had told us to turn left, turn left and finally turn left! Some setting must have changed.  my friend was not keen on me touching the device…   he wanted to ensure that the entire journey was recorded with no stops or errors or accidental deletions.  Well after much persuading I had a go at fixing it… only to scroll too far and to press STOP which finished the recording session – exactly one of the things my friend asked me not to do…  He went a bit mental.  I cried.   I said maybe I’d just go home.

He cycled off.

It started raining.

In despair I got back on my bike after removing my phone from my bag and popped it in my pocket after checking the sat nav map for directions.  Amazingly we seemed to be still on track.

The route took us out into some small country lanes where I caught up with my friend on a hill.  We stopped to check the directions on the phone.   We argued… he didn’t trust my phone sat nav and was going on about how much better it is doing cycle touring on your own.   In the huff I tried to cycle off up a short steep hill, clipped in then promptly lost balance and couldn’t unclip my pedals quick enough. I fell off and hurt my poor wee leg.  I was sore  I am sure I heard a sniff of laughter from my friend but his face was straight by the time I untangled myself from my bike and got on to my feet!

The phone sat nav was so quiet in my pocket I couldn’t hear it on the road with traffic.  Thankfully I had a spot of inspiration after we started up another suspiciously small country lane. I put one earphone in and voila… we had some navigation.

Then things started looking up!   We had chased down a couple that were just ahead of us on the many hills that we went up and down… they overtook us on the ups (we had back packs) and we overtook them on the downhills as we were more risky!   When they stopped for a snack we stopped to talk to them and found out they were doing London to Paris too – part of an organised ride with support vehicles, food, water and mechanical help too!  Their rucksacks were in vans!   I said “I’d pay a fortune for someone to take my bag right now” as it was getting a bit sore on my back.

Then BINGO! they said they were following yellow route markers stuck onto road signs!  Yeeha…  Answered prayers, our challenges with navigation were over!  My friend visibly relaxed as did I!

They cycled off and we finally ate my sandwich!  All a bit late – I was tired, hungry and emotional!  A quick hug and we were off again…  but OWCH! Not what we needed – I was getting cramp in my legs on the hills and the rain got heavier as it started to get dark!  I needed to take on more salt supplements so I popped two tablets into each water bottle and prayed for help!