Day 1 - Saturday 3rd July
I didn't get much sleep the night before setting off, just four hours in fact, but despite that I was feeling quite relaxed and ready to go. The bike had been packed for around a week, and as I had packed the same as last year, I had a pretty good idea I had everything.
I headed over to Daz's house for around 9:45am. It turned out he had also only had around 4 hours sleep but this was because he had just come off working nights, having worked Thursday night, and he was adjusting his cycle again.
We said our goodbyes to Jane and Rose and got under way for around 10am.It was a nice clear day, but not too hot, so the riding was very pleasant.
We pulled into the services just after the M18 junction on the M1 where I had arranged to meet up with Nig. He was gutted he couldn't make it this year and wanted to see us off.
It turned out to be quite fortunate that we were meeting Nig as I had forgotten bring a ribbon to tie to my right-hand mirror. This is a tip my good friend Andy told me years ago, and something I make sure I do every time I ride in Europe. It serves as a constant visible reminder to keep me on the correct side of the road. I have never yet had a moment where I found myself on the wrong side of the road, and I am sure the ribbon trick has a large part to do with that!
I had planned on stopping on the A46 for something to eat as I knew there was a Little Chef and a couple of good cafes, which would certainly be better than British service station food. Unfortunately it turned out they had all shut down, so we carried on to the services on the M40 and got pizza and chips, which turned out to be very nice!
We got to Portsmouth for around 4pm, but had to wait until around 7pm before we were allowed to board. After a quick shower and freshen up we explored the boat which didn't take very long and went for dinner.
We had pre-purchased our meals which cost us £75 each for 6 meals. It turned out we received money vouchers with a face value of around £90 which we could use on any of the restaurants and bars on the boat. This turned out to be a very good deal and, because we had paid upfront, meant we spent hardly anything at all on the ferry!
We had a very large meal in the Four Seasons carvery and then had a couple of beers while watching the dreadful but weirdly entertaining cabaret. By around 11:30pm both me and Daz were falling asleep so we decided to call it a night, and we both slept very soundly!