Well, my time in France was over as I had finally run out of my 90-day Schengen time. So, booking the 10.30am ferry from St Malo to Portsmouth the evening before, I was up early and had the bike packed quickly. It was 6.30am, it was dark, it was cold and it was raining. It wasn’t light rain, either. Horrible. The worst part was the first hour riding whilst it was dark. With the visor down, oncoming light from cars would dazzle me because of the wet visor. Also, my visor kept steaming up on the inside so in the end I had to ride with my visor open. It was horrible.
It rained all the way to St Malo but I actually made good time. So good that I had to sit in the rain for at least 30 minutes before boarding started. The mileage to St Malo was 180km – 112 miles. Because the ferry wasn’t very busy and there were few people, I commandeered a small area and soon had my jacket hanging over two chairs to dry, and my helmet, boots and gloves placed over vents to dry as they were wet through. I even took my socks off and dried them too, hiding my feet under a table.
We got into Portsmouth around 7pm and disembarkation was easy, but strangely enough two bottles of malt whiskey happened to fall into my top-box. I really don’t know how that happened, and it seems to happen a lot. It was still raining cats and dogs in Portsmouth, and looking at my weather app the rain was up and down the UK so while we were waiting to disembark I decided to book myself into a guest house for two nights using Booking dot com. Sod the expense, I want to be warm and dry…! Grabbing some food at a mini-market, I soon found the guesthouse in Southsea, and before long I was under the warm duvet and watching TV while outside the rain continued to fall. Bliss.
The following day the rain had stopped and I was determined to do some cultural stuff. I decided to visit HMS Warrior and the Naval Museum. Finding the website it seems I cant just visit the Warrior or even just the museum: You have to buy a ticket which also covers everything: the Warrior, the Victory, M33 and the museum. I’ve already been on Victory several times and I wasn’t really interested in M33 so at £46 for a ticket I decided to give it a miss. £46…! Why is this museum so expensive, and why can’t you see just one or two parts..? In the end I had a trip down memory lane by meandering around several parts of the city where I spent much of my naval career and a mis-guided youth.
The next morning I made my way up north. I stopped at Manchester to see my Mum and sister and then continued back to Scotland the following day. This leg of the trip from Portsmouth to Scotland was 792km, or 495 miles in old money. The mileage for the whole journey was approximately 2000 miles: around 700 miles for the outward journey, 800 miles in France and then 500 miles for the journey home. I didn’t keep a record of my fuel or any other expenditure, as I was just having fun.
I have really enjoyed this small trip. I think France is a really beautiful country, especially Normandy and Brittany. Its easy to forget about northern France, as most people are usually hell-bent on going south, but northern France is lovely. Its got its own charm, and its own identity. The countryside, the coastline, the towns, the food, the bread and the atmosphere. It really is chilled-out. I also love the slower pace of life, the way that driving is much slower and easier, and that wherever you shop, there is such a delicious choice of food. I’ll definitely be back next year, and the year after that, and the year after that…
