Day 1: The ferry

Day 1 of the trip started well. We went into Taunton to watch the Tour of Britain stage 6 start. Lucy got very excited because she got to see her hero Mark Cavendish, although it was the moment she decided that I don't find anything exciting because I wasn't particularly excited about it. After that we did some general last minute preparations and got everything ready for the off at 7pm. We got a lift to Plymouth (thanks mum) and were both fairly excited about the whole thing, which was good because it proves I do get excited about some things.



We made it to the ferry in good time and all was well as we cycled onto the boat. It seemed the best thing to do was take a bottle of wine to help us nod off, giving us a good nights sleep and able to wake up fresh and able to put in a good days cycle for day 1. The plan was solid; although the plan didn't include the second bottle of wine, or the meeting with Benji from Brest, nor the vodka that followed. Being told off by the steward for making too much noise certainly wasn't part of the plan. I don't think Lucy intended to give Benji from Brest her number; because obviously with him being a mere 21 years old it might seem somewhat cougarish. She did well to swerve his lunging lips though so all in all very contradictory; but excellent entertainment for me nonetheless.

Anyway, we finally got to sleep, after Lucy trod on someone, and after being told off for talking. I came to about an hour later to rolling seas and stomach. Queue a quick dash to the toilet (literally just making it prior to projectile) and then I was back in my seat, dozing for the final hour of the crossing. As we made port I came to to hear a lady regail a story of her husband being trodden on in the night.

As we left the boat the rain was coming down sideways, both of us horrifically hung over and generally not full of the joys of spring. It was about 20 minutes into the ride that we decided things would be alot better if we stopped at the first campsite and got a good nights rest before heading on the next day. Unfortunately the first campsite we came to was in Plouvan 10 miles down the road, the most unfortunate thing about it was that it was closed. I had flashbacks to the US ride and thought we might find every campsite we see closed for the season! We decided to push on to Landivisieau as the tourist map in Plouvan said there were lots of campsites there. There wasn't, in fact when we did ask a local where the nearest one was she said Roscoff.. which was where we had got off the boat!? So it came to be that we spent the first night of the trip in the Hotel de L'Avenue in Landivisieau. Which was nice because the beds were well comfy.. and we used our camp stoves to cook dinner so we half camped, kind of.

25 miles on the speedo, which is damn good considering we were hungover and only had an hours sleep. At least that's what we are telling ourselves.