Sunday August 7, 2022, 95 km (59 miles) – Total so far: 2,707 km (1,682 miles)
Today we cycled in three countries!
We had a great sleep last night despite our neighbours at the campsite cooking their meal at 11pm, and yacking away in loud voices as if other people weren’t trying to sleep in their tents until past midnight. I’ve somehow learned to switch off to noises and sleep through them, possibly because I’m exhausted after cycling all day.
We were away before 10am this morning and started our ride towards Dunkirk. A vicious headwind slowed our progress as we slogged our way forward. It was by far the worst headwind we’d had on the entire trip. Usually our speed is around 20 kms/hr, today it was as lower than 10 kms/hr in the gustiest of winds.
High rise holiday apartments lined the promenade again, footpaths heaving with holiday-makers. Neither of us enjoyed it.
We had tossed around the idea of continuing to Cherbourg, but the headwinds have definitely put us off that idea.
We arrived in Dunkirk around 2pm and headed straight for MacDonalds. So our first meal in France was pizza from a vending machine, and our last meal was MacDonalds. We are both ashamed of ourselves!
After MacDonalds we needed to make a decision. We were both exhausted after struggling into the headwind, but the thought of hanging around in a campground for the afternoon didn’t appeal. So we made a run for the ferry to see if we could get on one today.
It was a 20 kms ride to the port, and it was a hard slog into the relentless headwind. I had a burst of energy from the MacDonalds, but Mike was struggling. We got lost twice on the cycle paths, and in the end we just followed the road. It was a Sunday and hardly any traffic.
We made it to the ferry with plenty of time to spare and they had space! Heaps of space. In fact, the ferry to Dover was near empty.
I was worried about the wind causing a rough crossing, but the workers on board said it would be smooth, so I didn’t bother with a seasick tablet. Even though the seas were choppy, the stabilisers made for a smooth ride.
We arrived in Dover and made our way to the hotel we had booked. We’ll decide where we go from here, tomorrow.
You can follow our journey on YouTube here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAP03_iOV9QrtahRxRPBTVB9ZTNOmdiznv
