On the Somme Again

On the Somme Again - Part 2

Well. As I approached the toll at Setques I was hoping the tag would work.

Once in the chute the green arrow turns to 30kph. And then about ten yards short the barrier went up and off I went.

Phew.

Stopped at Aire de Rely. Much has changed since Vimy in April. The building work is completed now.

The self service restaurant has completely gone and instead there is a sandwich bar affair.

Coffee is still good and welcome. And there is free WiFi. Fuel is mind bogglingly expensive.

The decision to wear the FT jacket might come back to haunt me. Queuing for the Shuttle had me sweating and the odor is er... Not very pleasant. Might have to buy some Febreze..

I have opened the front and rear vents to see if the wind can blow away the whiff!!!

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Bikers Loft 3

The last day. After leading yesterday's run to Ypres, I decided to take a back seat, or a different place in the line of 8 bikes. And so after a repeat of the previous day's self cook breakfast we packed the bikes and headed off. Aiming for Nieuwpoort aan Zee as the first stop. The plan to follow a canal all the way there to where it meets the sea at a huge marina. I was bringing up the rear of the column and saw a sign like this one. "No Motor vehicles" After only one short section of the towpath/road. We tried to alert those ahead but Cal and I were the only two not heading past this sign. We chose to turn left across a lift bridge onto the other bank, where Nieuwpoort was signposted 15kms away. As we headed along we sounded our horns and waved at the "first wave" to no avail. Some miles further on their side came to an end. By then we were way ahead despite dropping the speed to 40. We carried onto t...

Screen fitted

Today I was working from home after the trains were cancelled and I came home from the station! I did a bit of work, you can only do what is in front of you on the helpdesk software, and so I had a late lunch and decided to have a look at the screen fittings. In the end, it was a 90 minute lunch and it is fitted. The four brackets have to be done one at a time, offering up the screen each time before tightening them in place. In the end it looks pretty central. No time to test it today. That will have to wait until the weekend. Fitted! The instructions are pretty rubbish, and look like an eighth generation photocopy of the original drawing. Still, the photo on Skidmarx website was marginally better. My positioning looks a little different but it seems rigid. Only a test ride will tell if it is okay.

Bikers Loft 2

We were up reasonably after a latish night and the self cook dinner! Breakfast is included in the room rate and is also self service as well as self cook. I'm not used to eating breakfast and so opted for the continental style rather than the bacon and eggs style! The rooms are pretty basic. I shared with Trevor and we had two single beds. A little re-jigging of the room ensured that there was a man-gap between the beds! Early suggestions for the Saturday ride out had been to the Wire of Death. An electric fence that was built by the German occupation army in 1915 from the coast at Knokke to the German border, and just inside the Belgian frontier. It was to stop Belgians escaping into neutral Netherlands. Over the course of the war it claimed over a 1000 lives. Read more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wire_of_Death I can't tell you any more as we didn't go!! In the end we decided on Ypres, only 30 miles aw...

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