3 Days in Brittany.

[adrian74]

Thursday.
I worked thru my lunch today so as I could finish an hour early as
Im going to Brittany tonight for 3 days and my ferry leaves Plymouth at 11pm.
My bike has been loaded up since last night, roll bag with camping gear, throw over panniers with clothes and tail pack with cooking gear and food.
As usual the tank bag holds tools, multimeter etc.
It takes me a lot longer than expected to have my dinner, shower and pack the last of my stuff before Im finally ready to go, maybe its because we have a 3 month old little boy now and I havent been away from him since the day he was born.
I booked the ferry on a whim one night and now Im having second thoughts, Im wondering should I have left it till he was older?
My better half reassures me that both they and Ill be fine once I get going, and anyway, tommorow, herself and the little man are going away for 3 days with her mum, its a tradition that they holliday together this weekend every year for the last few years.
So theres no point in me staying home, Ill be on my own!
I say goodbye and start the bike, its running sweet, I just serviced it last weekend and gave it a good once over just to make sure all was good.
The motorway is pretty busy and soon enough it starts to drizzle.
The ride down is pretty uneventfull and I decide to fill up in Plymouth so as to have no delays in France when the ferry docks.
I ask they cashier how far the ferry is "2 miles" she says, only to be contradicted by a fellow cashier who says "no its not, its 3 miles, dont mind what she says" I've obviously interupted an argument and I decide that the truth is probably 2 and half miles!
Im heading twords the ferry when Im redirected by a diversion, within minutes Im lost and have to stop to ask a local for directions.
He sets me on the right path and soon Im at ferry checkin.
"Your lucky.....this is the only ferry going to France from the UK tonight because of the strike" says the lady behind the desk. "Oh thank God" I say, even though i had no idea there was a strike!
Sometimes my whole life seems to revolve around ferries/airports, We've only just got back from Ireland a couple of weeks ago, used the ferry then aswell, Stena line.
I line up with several other bikes, a Goldwing, Hayabusa, 2 Gsxr1000's, an old Gsx650, Gtr1400, and of course 3 R1200gsa's all decked out with hard luggage, sat navs, intercoms, full BMW riding gear, you name it they had it.
I was sure they were headed for an epic trans Africa/RTW/Round Europe trip and was eager to hear their story but when I asked them they said they were just on a weekend guided tour of Brittany, hotels etc included.
I was gobsmacked, they were sitting on about £15k of equipment each and were paying someone else to guide them around!
But then I started thinking, maybe Im the one thats got it wrong, I could quite possibly end up spending 3 days chasing my tail around northern France on my 650 V -Strom with michelin map, seeing nothing but roads and service stations and missing all the good stuff simply because i dont know its there, and I suppose thats where the tour guide would come in handy.
Either ways its too late now, and even if I wanted a guided tour theres no way I could afford it.
We get the all clear to ride onto the ferry and I park up and strap the bike down to the floor anchor points.
I have a reclining seat booked and make my way to that part of the ship.
The ship is only 1 and a half years old and looks really clean and modern inside with a large bar, restaraunt, 2 cinemas, showers and numerous seats. Im dissapointed to see though that the seats dont recline very far (think aircraft seats) and are nowhere near as good as the sleeper seats on the LD lines ferry from Potrsmouth to Le Havre.
I take my seat and the ferry doesnt seem all that busy, I start chatting with a guy 2 seats away and it turns out we're practically neighbours back home!
We both agree that we're not going to get much sleep in these seats.
After a while he dissapears for a few mins and comes back with a bottle of red wine and 2 glasses, "drink half of this" he says and I happily oblige.
Sure enough the wine done the trick and we're both asleep within the hour, and all thru the night the only sounds to be heard is the gentle hum of the large diesel engines pushing us twords France and the disturbingly regular farts coming from one of the gixer riders a few rows behind me.