Alger to home.

I’m a bit late with this entry, but once at home you have other occupations.

19 May.   We left Alger four hours late for unknown reasons. This meant that we hung around from 10 am to 5 pm in the customs area. The start was good, we did the motorbike manoeuvre to get first in line. We had the usual 5 different custom controls. There was one highlight though. There was a officer with a small handheld device for explosives detection. Mike’s medication triggered the device. they stored the medication away from the luggage and checked again. I saw the antenna of the detector point strait at the medication, Impressive.

The customs guys were friendly, a lot of football talk, we met a fellow biker that was on family visit and we got first on the boat.

The crossing was fun, the waves were 2 meters high, made us think about the time we worked off-shore.

Afficher l'album en entier

20 May.   We arrived on schedule in Marseille. The captain must have used the turbo to make up for the lost time. After a quick encounter with the French customs. Almost got strip-searched by 4 female customs officers. But one was from Brittany, she did a good word for me.

We ended up that day in the Ardèche. I can’t remember the name of the village but there was not much to it anyway. The Ardèche is for sure motorbike country. I liked the roads in the mountains and landscape is beautiful. 

21 May.     Our objective for the day was Tours. When we got up the sun was shining and the temperature was already above 20°C. Great Weather, even Mike decided to dress for summer. As you know by now that is a reference!! But once on the bike climbing in to the mountains the temperature dropped to 10°. Had to close the ventilation again. My rally2 jacket was a good investment. From 0° in the rain in Burgos to 35° in the  Tunisian dessert I never felt extremely cold or hot.

We camped at Chenonceau, close to the famous castle build over the river. Beautiful architecture, and building it in the river must have been a challenge. And if you need to work on the adrenaline I recommend the boat tour that passes underneath the castle. It is like rafting with a “bateau mouche".

We had our last dinner together in style in some fancy hotel, abused on the wine and finished the evening with the instant pina colada that Mike had forgotten about during the whole trip. £%¨:!!!%