Reflecting on the trip

As I sit on the plane heading home I have a glass of champagne in hand and am reflecting on the past 3 weeks of fun in both the UK where we stayed with Ian and Lorna in Richmond and then on the journey first to Dover and then on to Calais and the journey south to Cahors and then by train to Toulouse 

The trip through France was terrific and provided many highlights and some real challenges , particularly when Chris  had his bike stolen in Niort .... but like true travellers from the Southern Hemisphere we responded with the right spirit 

France and the French people were great even though our spoken French was poor at times . But we managed well

Over the trip we traveled 1696 kms or 1700 kms in my book 

We climbed 9737 metres and most days we did over 100 kms per day

Our biggest day of distance traveled was 151 kms

Our biggest climbing day was 1079 metres 

We stayed in a mixture of youth hostels, Warm Showers homes , camping sites and cheaper hotels and it would be fair to say the Warm Showers accomodation offered the real opportunity to meet some great hosts 

I say thank you and merci to all of our hosts 

Finally I want to thank my riding partner Chris Jones for putting up with me over the past 3 weeks...

I hope my snoring and lack of hearing at times did not spoil your holiday and I wish you well in the days ahead with your new bike and the Tour de France trip

As you said on your blog yesterday we might make an ANZAC business out of this yet for those interested in an adventure with a bit of “ ruff and tuff” traveling 

So with a tear in my eye and a glass in my hand I say au revoke