To France and more.

On the ferry and it's a soul less place. Apart that is from the guy behind the bar who does an ok coffee and comes from Pollock in Glasgow!
Tanya is down below in Sadie and I admit I am worrying how she is doing being on her own. She is normally ok for an hour or two. But this is slightly different with the movement of the ship and all the different and strange sounds.

Ah well! More later.

,,,,,,,,,,,

Well; now it is later. A curry is bubbling away and 'Nostalgia' is playing a good mix of French music and classic hits in English. Tanya is fed and sleeping next to me on the drivers seat. Sadie is slightly leaning to one side. Not enough to worry about apart from needing to prop the pan handle so the curry is cooking evenly.

That is what you get after a 120km drive, a good visit to the Vimy Ridge memorial and then use of Google satellite maps to locate this local track in 'Lievin' with a handy and wide enough dry grass verge to perch Sadie. 

Tanya enjoyed her walk up into the local woods where we passed another smaller memorial to those Canadians who died while taking the 'Pimple' as it was known then, 95 years ago. The conquest was achieved 2 days after the main ridge was taken.

I did notice in the blurb the offensive was April 9th and 'they advanced into the driving snow and sleet'. Here was I on March 1st in warm sunshine happy and at peace. 

In such a place and on such a day I can only make sense of it by acknowledging their sacrifice and of how it has enabled me to be where I am now. Guess I had best enjoy this peace and warmth to the full if I am to pay any respect at all to the pyramid of ancestral life and death that stretches back and supports me at it's very peak.

An amusing aside was a coach load of youngsters from Cardiff who were there on a school trip. I thoroughly enjoyed staying close by them and listening to their highly knowledgeable, and easy to listen to teacher. 

Did you know that water does'nt go through chalk which meant the trenches and tunnels were always flooding? 

"That's why their feet were wet and they got trench foot sir" shouted the lad just by me who I observed was determined to show he knew as much as his teacher.

Well that has been today and it follows 2 pleasant days at 'Le Touquet Paris-plage'. A sort of French Bournemouth. Very pleasant though with Sadie and smart phone 'Co-Pilot' sat nav guiding us all to a 'camping car' designated area (Aire) virtually next to the sea and the huge beach.

The big bonus was of course it was all flat..Bike was quickly unloaded, Tanya carrier lashed into place and off we went. She loved it. We did 2 really long excursions combining walking and carrying of Tanya. She was just sooo good. 

She never even batted an eyelid when at one point as I was dismounting in order to wheel bike and her across a busy road, I lost my balance. We all, much to the amusement of passers by, gently toppled to pavement level. I unhooked Tanya and she delicately extricated herself from the undignified tangle. She then quietly sat and watched as I untangled my legs from the now horizontally positioned bike.

The other big bonus, and one I am only just starting to really appreciate, is the HTC Sensation smart phone coupled with Vodafone data roamer and GPS positioning. Twice now this clever technology has rescued me from getting totally lost by showing me in detail via the already mentioned 'Google satellite maps' a helicopter view of where I am. This has enabled even me, one who is scarily familiar with being lost on 'expoditions, to navigate successfully around a seaside town centre and the middle of a totally new and rather large French forest.

Mind you the sat nav part does have its moments. It got me to 'Carrfour' in the Coquelle region of Calais where the idea was to top up with diesel. What it did'nt tell me, and sat navs should be taught these things at sat nav primary school, was that every entrance had a barrier set at 2.1metres high. Surely Mr sat nav you should know I am 3.0metres high!  

Had to abandon that one as 6 times round and still not finding a way in was enough for me and for the one car that seemed to delight in glueing itself to my rear end all the way round.
Carrfour in St Omer were more accessible and Sadie's thirst duly quenched.