Trip to Annecy - the return journey

For the last night, Roger took us up to a high remote mountain restaurant, which we would never have found on our own, in his minibus together with Suzanne and Veronique, the maid. It was good night but we had to retire early for the long slog of the next day. It was just as well as it was to be demanding due to rain. Roger, Suzanne and Veronique were there to wave us off. We ran into rain about half way through the 300+ mile journey and had to stop on two occasions because of the dangerous conditions. First, we just missed a hail storm, with hail the size of marbles, which would have been perilous had we been riding. The wait here for it to subside was not too long, but the next one to avoid torrential rain was for around 45 mins, so our arrival at the motor lodge was later than expected. We had stuck to motorway as much as possible to make progress, so there was little scenery to enjoy or riding activity to cope with.

Another early night for an even earlier start for the final journey home - a 225 mile sprint mostly in heavy rain and stiff winds to Le Havre, followed by ferocious winds and rain for the 130 mile stage from Portsmouth to home. On the ferry ramp at Portsmouth, the wind caught my windscreen and pushed me a couple of feet sideways before I got control again. The traffic was light from Chievely because of the late hour, but the inactivity of just sitting on the bike in the driving rain and wind mile after mile meant that my legs were shaking with cold by the time one of the group from Bidford and I crossed the Cotswolds. I finally got home at 1:15am and headed straight for a hot shower and an even hotter whisky and bed. Even so, my feet were still cold, my boots having started to take in water in the later stages as I hadn't re-waxed them before we set off. My riding mate told me the next day that he too was shaking from head to foot and his wife had to help him take off his clothes on arrival, having suffered more than me without a windscreen, and his boots had started leaking on the outward journey! The rest of the group went via the M4/M5 to Bristol, Cirencester, Droitwich and Bromsgrove. It was character building!