Things started well with myself and Gareth leaving Crawley at about 7:30 to head down to Portsmouth for the ferry. We were expecting to meet Phil C and Kev (LHW) at about 9:15 outside the Ludmore pub before all heading onto the ferry together. As it turned out, Phil was already there and told us that Kev had left his rucksack containing his tickets and passport at the services and was in the process of doing an additional 40 miles to go and collect it.
At about 9:30, Phil, Liz (Phil’s better half), Gareth and Myself headed round to the ferry for Kev to turn up about 15 minutes later.
Having got on the boat it was off to the bar where we partook in a few light beverages until about 3am. Realising the boat docked in 4 hours and we had a bit of riding to do it was off to be. Gareth kindly offered Kev the use of his cabin. I only discovered later that Kev had his tub of axle grease with him.

Getting off the boat in the morning was no problem except Kev needed fuel. After stopping at the first fuel station from the boat and a quick 30 mile blast over the Pont du Normandie and down the twistier roads to a village just north of Bernay. After a quick coffee and croissant we went to leave only to discover that Liz had left her helmet in the café and Kev had left his rucksack behind again.

Riding down we then went to Vermoutier and stopped for Kev to fill the VTR up again and called Trev (Big Mac) to let him know we were well on our way. The rest of the journey down to Trev’s mansion in Charnigre was uneventful. Garthe had a GPS with him but could not actually see the thing through his tank bag cover, so I found my way using an old map I had packed instead. We avoided using the main roads and were well surfaced, warm and empty of virtually all traffic.

Once we arrived in the village, we started to look for a café to grab another coffee whilst we waited for Big Mac only to discover that we had stopped right outside his house. How lucky was that?

As soon as we turned off the engines, Trev, Dawn (Mrs Big Mac) and their tribe of children were passing round the coffee, croissants and trying to get us to eat.

After a couple of hours rest it was off for a 90 mile blast with Trev after Kev filled up again. Phil and Liz gave this one a miss in favour of entertaining Trev’s tribe instead. Trev left the way and took us through some fantastic villages on some very fast twisty roads around his region. After dropping his daughter back home we headed out again for part two of the ride. Some way in I had to stop as a French bug had landed in my eye. Unfortunately Kev does not have working mirrors on his bike and did not realise we had stopped for some time. Having got my sight back, we tried to find them and ended up following Gareths GPS back to the house where Kev and Trev were waiting for us.

After a short rest, Trev then ferried us and his tribe over to a pub he wanted to try in Lassay-les-Chateaux for a few beers and to meet Pollox the pub dog.

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Pollox

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From left to right, Trev, Phil, Pollox, Liz, Kev and Dawn.

It was then back to his house for more food (a very nice chilli thanks Dawn), beer games and eventually some sleep.

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Gareth Rolling his nappy up.

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And getting ready to wear it!

After a few hours sleep it was time to pack up and head to the circuit. Before we could go though Dawn made us all a good English (not Welsh) cooked breakfast. Finally getting on the road, we all filled up with fuel and got going. On the outskirts of Le Mans we got split up a little. Kev and Trev headed for the ticket office, Phil headed to the bike park whilst myself and Gareth headed to what we though was the camp site we had booked. Having ridden all the way round and not found anywhere to pitch a tent let alone 3 we were told by a guy from Coventry that there was space by his tent for one tent. This site was hell hole. There were mini-moto’s being races around the road there, engines having the valve bounce tested non stop, broken glass and fires everywhere. Kev and Trev arrived and we pitched his tent before heading into the circuit to watch the start of the race.

Once in the circuit we realised that we had infact pitched up in the free camping area rather than the one that we actually booked, so once the race was underway we moved everything over to a clean spacious secure campsite inside the track boundaries.

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Some Fazers we saw on the camp site.
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Notice the twin pipes?
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After repitching the tents, we spent the evening wandering round the whole circuit watching the racing from various points including the S bend where we saw the Italian rider crash out in spectacular style only to be carted off in an ambulance.

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The sun going down over the bike park.

Following a couple of hours back at the tent it was off the see some of the night racing. This has changed since the last time I was there as they have now floodlit the track making it far too safe!

Early Sunday morning it was back to the Dunlop Granstand to watch the pit straight exit to the Dunlop bridge section for a while before heading into town.

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For some reason (mad frogs probably) all the local shops were shut but we did manage to find a cash-point and a Spar supermarket that was open in the town centre. Beer sales are banned over the weekend to prevent alcohol related deaths apparently but you can still stock up on Wine, Spirits, Cider etc.

Back at the track, Phil and Liz arrived and met us so that we could all wander down to the pit straight for the final hours of the race.

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Welsh Mansions. Why does some one so small need such a big tent?

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Mr Hollow Legs

By 6pm on the Sunday we were about the only ones left in the Tetre Rouge site.
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So Gareth set about getting the fire going. Anyting that might burn was tested for combustibility.
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By now the toilets were shut so when in France.........
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Leaving Le Mans the next morning Kev managed to pick up a piece of glass in his tyre and pulled off into the supermarket car park. Gareth fixed temporarily with the plug kit Kev carried, but we decided to look for a tyre shop as the split was quite big.

We found the first place by ourselves but were then sent to a second and a third back in the town before we found a dealer that had a tyre. Problem was they didn’t have a fitter.

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They do now

Because of the delays, we had told Phil to carry on rather than wait at Alencon for us. After Gareth had finished his fitting job, we took it easy (kept it below 70 in a 55 limit) for 30 miles or so and stopped for lunch. Up till this point the skys had been blue and the temperature in the mid-high twenties. Now it started raining!
Another 30 miles or so and we needed to stop for Petrol again (well Kev did)
After that it was some high speed fun up to just south of Bernay where we accidentally met up with Phil and Liz again. By this point Kev had next to no chicken strips left on his new tyre and certainly less than there were on the old tyre.
From there we blasted in to Le Harve for a final French coffee before getting the ferry out to Portsmouth.
For the first time I saw a pilot being airlifted off the ferry. There must be a cheaper way!
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Finally back at Portsmouth following a fog bound crossing we all said our goodbyes and headed our seperate ways. For myself and Gareth this meant a cold, foggy ride over the south downs before getting some clear, dry roads that we could actually see where we were heading.

Home was reached at 11pm and a well earned bath was required for this soap dodging foccer!