London to Willeman

Tuesday 21 June

Today, 21 June, is the longest day in this part of the world, but UK and France are an hour apart

I think both countries do things different just for the hell of it.

In London the sun was down about 8pm I thought, and up again at 4am, so France have a bit more logic on this one being an hour later, or maybe the difference is a daylight saving thing.

Was all packed up and on the way before 7, overcast sky but took a punt it wouldnt rain and left the leggings in the box.

There's a heap of bikes in London, scooters and sport bikes mainly, everyone wearing full bike gear, even those on scooters, two main reasons I'd say,

one, it rains every half hour, and two, the chances of getting knocked off a bike look to me to be pretty high.

The English appear to be good competent drivers, after all they have that Stirling Moss, Graham Hill etc, legacy, but there's a big tendency to push the envelope with displays of skill smoothly zooming into impossible gaps.

I found myself late yesterday having to stop in the middle of a roundabout to avoid being smacked by one expert going for the slot in front of me, lucky there wasnt anything close behind.

Apart from that I'm reminded of the impression I got on my years ago visit, there's a noticeable civility in the way people conduct themselves. I recall being at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard or something similar, people were climbing up onto the huge statues for a better look, and a bobby was going an endless circuit saying "Will you come down please", and as fast as he got one side cleared, there'd be a new lot climbing the other. Never lost his cool, patience and manners what this place is about, except if youre Stirling Moss. 

Traffic on the A2 and M20 down to Folkestone wasnt too heavy, leaving London it was all coming the other way, built up again close to Dover, which eventually split off for the ferry I suppose, leaving a light queue for the EuroTunnel.

Surprised myself coping with the auto check-in machine, pre-booked you just input your 8 digit booking code, the machine gives you a preference of departure time, press which one, and its off to the wait line. I was booked for 11.55am, but got on the 9.20am.

You ride down the quay, and Goodbye Pork Pie it straight in the door of a gussied up rail wagon, several of them linked in such a way you could drive from front to back of the whole train, and mostly double-decked as well. The train moves off imperceptibly and gets up to 140kph, so smooth you wouldnt notice, you ride in the wagon with your bike.

Took less than an hour and a chance to chat with the other 3 bikers, all Englanders, a couple, he on an MT01, she on a BMW Tourer, off to the south of France, and the other bloke on a GSX off to Germany.

Mount up and out the door onto the quay, and out the gate onto the freeway, all there is to it, French passport check on the UK side, but the vopo just waved me straight through.

Hardly on the freeway 5 km and spotted an off-ramp to the coast, sounds like me....

And then the bliss started...

little country lanes, excellent agricultural crops meticulous to the road edge, tidy little villages, and several diversions out to the seaside or cliffs, heavy with the concrete pill-box legacy of the War, most of which entranceways filled in and roses or poppies growing on the fill, the scene of thousands of deaths, hallowed ground really, with several military museums along the way.

Saw one German railway mounted 280mm Krupp gun, variable charge, with a max range of 82km at 14 shots per hour.

Fantastic amount of steel and concrete consumed in the whole coastal defence system. Had short stops at Cap Blanc Nez and Cap Griz, both figured in the wartime coastal defence system, hillsides pockmarked still with old shell-holes.

When you beat yourself to exhaustion trying to get everything done to get away for a spell, you wonder if its going to be worth all the effort, then in less than 50km it is.

Slotting into France's keep right was a cinch after the US, just the quaint give way to everything on your right, as opposed to UK's old right hand rule, keep left, just to be different.

Three other small triumphs accomplished this morning as well.

Finally got some cash off my fee-free card at an ATM in a little town the size of Marton, ditto for some fuel from a supermarket carpark, equally as beat up as the ATM, you slip your chip-embedded credit card in, wait for authorisation, then pump your gas and take your receipt, 95, 98, and diesel at the pump. Also got caught for E.70c at a freeway toll section, and managed to work my way round the French instructions at the booth, till an English language option pops up. Even in one's own language its a bit of a trial, without dismounting or de-gloving, and a queue up your derriere.

Generally, I've been able to let the GPS run the show, but we got stuffed up in a small town with cobbled one-way size streets twisting in no set pattern, it lost its way by insisting I go to the town centre waypoint, then u-turn back down a 10' wide  cobbled canyon... yeah right.

So here I am in the middle of this glorious rural scenery, 2 nights at this place near Hesdin, about 80km inland from Boulogne sur Mer, guests of Stuart and Janice Ross at their B&B. There's another couple staying here as well, drinks and dinner commence at 7. I've got the upstairs ash-beamed attic of the 200 year old farm house, couple of happy dogs, some chooks and ducks on the lawn, birds singing...., very relaxing.

Another lesson learned, stay away from roadside stalls signed up "Friteries", you get a massive pile of chips and 3x 5/8" slabs of burger beef closed in a split half breadstick. I gave up halfway through the chips, but the french bread was.... as only french bread can be.

Have to keep my eyes open rather for patisseries or french bakeries, there's one in nearly every village, or where I can get a decent coffee as well.

The agriculture here's a bit of an eye-opener alright, top farming all of it, big fat heads on the grain, a gently rolling vista of just coming ripe grain crops, interspersed with sugar beet, spuds, mustard or soy, chicory actually I remember, and you pass the occasional sugar processing plant with its multiple silos, most of France's sugar comes from the beet.

Jees, 3 weeks of this I'll be... dunno, lost for words

Most of the roads are less than secondary, 70 to 80kmph, plenty of nice curves, bugger all traffic, and the Bandit's doing it nicely. The secondaries have usually a 90k limit, and the road signage is easily understood and consistent. I've reset the GPS to avoid toll roads and heavy traffic.

When I asked the English bikers on the tunnel train for some comment on driving in France, they both remarked straight off the cuff, the roads are fabulous, much better fun than UK,

so there you go mates...  you'd love it here.

To Los Angeles & London

Monday June 20

 

This log opening will be quick, one because its 1.20am LA time, and 2nd, the netbook's battery is low.

I've just come to, after blacking out at 9pm, but no worries about the early hour and I can sleep till checkout at noon.

I'm at the Hacienda Hotel, El Segundo city, part of LA, same place Ken put the bike tour in last year,

still the same, toilet bowls half full of water, but hey, those upside down light switches have gone.

In their place is a thing I tried slipping the door card into in the curtained off afternoon gloom when I arrived, but found its actually a flat light switch that you push to initiate,

thereafter its a sensor that turns the light on when you walk past, and turns things off with a timer if you forget to when you leave!

Handy in the bathroom too...

 

Pretty warm on arrival, as opposed to 2 previous years to the Wet Coast, but the cloud rolled in at 8pm which chased the bare shoulders and limbs off the streets, but a welcome return to sunset at that hour instead of the 5.30pm I've just come from.

I felt the first pang of loneliness outside Macy's shopping mall, the hotel shuttle which was supposed to pick patrons up at 8pm never turned up, it got dark, and there was no way I was going to try walking home

there wasnt any cell-phone coverage here either, hardly 3 km from the hotel.

Riyght handy of the hotel to run a shuttle to this reasonably nearby shopping centre though, as I found I'd left my togs behind, and sun-glasses, although theyre something I find just another bloody nuisance on holidays.

Besides, I needed a feed and a mall sounded like a good place to achieve that.

I found some togs for $20, but the sunnies I passed on, like who needs Raybans or Helfigers at US$80 up to $200 and beyond, nowhere competitive with my $25 Stihl industrial glasses.

The young lady at the perfume counter just inside Macy's door kindly called me a cab, and lonely got to be a thing well of the past as the driver questioned my accent, and in response he commented NZ'ers and Australians speak somewhat the same, no?

Er, no..., as I gave him a nasal rendition of "stone the flamin crows, the feesh n cheeps'll be culled before the danss" as opposed to "eff me, the fush n chups in 'n zillin'll be colled before the dince"

But you speak good english I commented to him, actually he's Indian, as in Asian Indian,

Oh no he says, I never lost my accent in 8 years, but I grammatically am good

No problem I say, because by and large Indians do speak understable english.

Then his next question, do you like cricket?

Uh oh, I wasnt about to jeopardise my new found contact by letting on I find the game somewhat less exciting than watching flies walk up a wall, and after a tentative nod, away he went about Daniel Vettori.

So here we have an Indian, in LA, nuts about cricket. Fortunately it was only a couple of weeks ago I saw that program about the kiwi "rock-stars" playing in the Indian League, so was able to inject a few leading names for him to run commentary on.... amazing.

 

Writing from London hotel now...

 

Am pleased to say I've beaten the jet-lag associated nausea, bloating induced actually, by fasting 12-20 hours before flying.

Its funny, you feel the better for the no-food, plus its very good on the travel budget, but eating the in-flight meals no problem.

Speaking of budget, the .80c exchange rate with US is most noticeable, at the shopping mall I found myself drooling at the men's clothing, something I dont do enough I guess, and got to figuring taking one of those LA or SanFran 3-5 night packages isnt all that silly an option for a short break, given the cost of getting round NZ.

My seat mates on the plane commented on how reasonable US hotel rates are, cheaper than home a lot of the time

my night at the Hacienda US$98, not a lot over NZ100.

Indeed, was somewhat amazed at the number  of people in their late 20's, early 30's, on the plane, making a trip to LA a social expedition, how long you going for, oh a week, echoing round my section of the plane

strange anyway for a Wanganui-ite, where every second day the Chron carries front page story about increasing food-bank demand.

There's a hell of a lot of money around out there, and a lot not far from home.

 

Have a growing appreciation of US currency policy too, printing their own money by the truckload keeps their exchange rate down, rendering them less vulnerable to the Chinese loan exposure, and the price of imports up, which the nation dosent do too much of, stuff from China, and half its daily oil consumption.

You could begin to wonder whats hanging the place together if 30% of the local economy is tourism, and its heavy industry is pretty much run down, but had a eureka moment recently when somebody informed me that USA is the world's biggest exporter of food, and there you have it, labour intensive agriculture, no social welfare, no other restrictive employment conditions, and an exchange rate geared to exporters.

 

Arriving in GB makes quite an opposite statement, cant help wondering whats keeping sterling so high.

This hotel I'm in now is NZ$300 equiv a night, it was the cheapest close to the bike shop, others were up to $1200 a night,

the 1 litre "complimentary" bottle of spring water on the table is an $8 add-on, 'refreshed' each day they say.

The Heathrow express into town was 18 quid (bit over $36), only I got taken for a 1.5 quid commission I guess over the machine vended price by a couple of touts at the air terminal exit.

 

LA - London was on a Boeing 777-300, longer version than the same model -200, and a real nice ride, maybe the seats are a bit bigger.

The ship had full passenger load, and incredibly, looked like half the cabin length was business and first class seating!

There really is some serious dosh out there us plebs dont know about.

Leaving at LA 4.30pm, flying under 10 hours eastward through a night that flashed quickly by, the plane got in UK 10.30-11.00am ish, took an age to get through immigration, 6 cash machines wouldnt dispense cash on fee-free cash loaded cards, but would give it out for credit cards, and everybody I saw was in the same boat, something fishy there.

All airport money-changing counters appear to have been amalgamated under the TravelEx brand, but theyre still a rip-off.

 

My TravelSim cell-phone card has similarly refused to give me service either here in UK or USA, not worth the frigging around,

but Vodafone's global roam has done its stuff.

 

Quite a mission getting from Heathrow to the bike shop, then the hotel, with my 2 bags

the train system's pretty good, out here in East London in 2 train changes, but a lot of humping the bags up stairs etc

Hadnt realised AirNZ have started charging for any 2nd checked in bag, $60-70 a pop 

so in future any expedition on a rented bike should be done with one suitcase.

This time the bike rental co were so unclear about how the bike was actually kitted, I took my own top-box when I didnt really need to

and I could have fitted everything needed into a wheeled travel bag, and thence to hard-shell panniers and topbox.

 

The bikes fine though, Suzuki 1250 GFS, wired my GPS in simply enough

couple of cracks in the fairings, good rubber, but the gearbox flogs a bit if you dont keep up in the gears

dosent have the same real lowdown torque of the CB and I've stalled a couple of times

but the streets are so pokey here the traffic's flat to get up to 30mph anyway.

The old right hand rule applies, and it was a bit strange to have left-turners helping themselves to right of way.

Its a good rule though, and cant wait till its re-introduced back home after the RWC.

Getting gas was simple, same as home, grab the filler, fill up, go inside, swipe your card, 13 litres, 17 quid, $36 roughly, $2.80/litre std grade?

The hotel was a trick to find, there are 2 roads, one 'old' and one 'new', and a street, all with the same name, in the one suburb,

even funnier was its number, 265, being opposite about number 500 on the other side of the street.

I got 2 'up there' pointers from people on the footpath before I found it, the GPS didnt have a 265.

 

Off to the channel Euro-Tunnel this morning.

Count Down... France 2011

Not long now, and getting organised.
Chip embedded credit card ordered and ready to pick up at the bank, pretty much universal requirement in France, for getting fuel anyway, cheapest and 24 hour at supermarkets.
Cash machines pretty much everywhere, railway stations etc.
Am getting the hire bike, Suzuki GFS 1250 Bandit, from an outfit in London, Raceways. Been a couple of horror reviews on Google about their service, so fingers crossed.
Put the Europe SD card into the GPS (Garmin Zumo 220) last night. Raceways are letting me wire in my own unit, which is blue-toothed to my helmet, taking that too. Entered my first night's stop-over in France, a village a couple of hours from Calais, and it popped up straight away, so things look cool in that dept.
Also got a Michelin Road Atlas of France off Amazon, A4 size, spiral bound so it lies flat, interesting plastic spiral binding I think will work better than metal. Its a bit bulky, and I think I only need the first 30 broader detail pages, should be OK in conjunction with the GPS.
Wiki-Travel has a great guide to motoring in France, rules of the road and other tips, and a pictorial of the road signs, so printed that off.
Accommodation's all booked. I used first off www.anglofrenchbedandbreakfast.com/ a network of english speaking B&B's of mostly rural flavour and some very charming looking places at that. Some are openly pro motorcycle tourism offering covered parking, others are indifferent, or appear targeting upper class clientile, but I've no problem with that.
Where I couldnt get a location that fitted my travel map, or the nearest candidate was fully booked, I used http://www.booking.com/
Dont even know how I came across this site, probably a side-bar pop-up on an unrelated search, but its a good one. You can get a little Google map, flagged with hotels around the target locality, or just use the default listing according to things like price, wifi, or parking, pics of the hotel and bedrooms incl.
Booking is a whizz, and you can register as a user and it remembers your details, except for the credit card which you input yourself each time.
I tried Wanganui to see how good it was internationally, lo and behold it worked for here quite well too.
Helmet bluetooth all charged up, phone/camera OK, all the adaptors ready to pack, netbook too. Wifi coverage not so flash all round my proposed route.
The Tour de France is going the same clockwise direction this year, but I'm 10 days ahead of it roughly.
I bought a Travelsim for the phone, $50, and hugely cheaper than global roaming, .50-.60c/min as opposed to $2.97 but dunno... there's the inconvenience of changing sims, and a different phone number to memorise, but it works pretty near all round the world. I'm not a compulsive yap disorder person, so jury's still out on this one.
Checking the Euro weather often, it rains nearly every second day in London. Its expensive there too, and I suspect all of UK, seems to me a bit of a pariah in the topography of international currency.
Gets warmer heading south in France, and below a line through Paris, daily temps over 20C, overnight 12-15C.
Its all up to that volcanic ash cloud from Chile now...

Get a Load of This...

Can't help putting this link up.
Reminds me of the days I had a Honda 200TRL trials bike here on the farm.
Getting round hillside sheep-tracks was just as much fun and challenge, some of the trackside drops were just as awesome, even without the altitude and the rocks, but skinnier in places.

http://www.angelfire.com/ak2/intelligencerreport/scariest_bike.html

Thanks Keith for passing on the link, and acknowledgement to the stars in the clip.

And what about this bloke!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TshFWSsrn8

Can this bloke ride or what???

Take your helmet off to this bloke.....

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No_vqA2A3KY&utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=12a1612987-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=email

Double Down

Had to try one, KFC sold 16,000 in the first day, cheese and bacon between 2 slabs of fried chicken, no bun.
Dont know what all the 'anti' fuss is about, there's no sugar involved, and high calories, so what...
just dont eat anything else rest of the day, or work it off.
Short answer, I didnt like it, simply too salty.
Its not all that big either, and the wait at the counter verging excruciating.
MacDonalds is a bit the same, the term 'fast food' is a bit of a misnomer these days as the popularity of these places grows.
Have to hand it to them on a promotion exercise though, and must be good for the chicken production industry as well.
For my money I'd rather a pie from Carlton Takeaways, big range of fillings, chock full of not unhealthy stuff, half the price, and in and out the door in less than a minute.
Just had a couple of grilled mutton chops for breakfast, and they were better too.
Asked myself yesterday if faced with a decision either a Double Down, or go for a 4 km run...
I'd take the run.