Although not technically the first day of my adventure, camping in France makes it my first proper day overseas.
Hastings was a nice, if brief, little jolly – great to see Stu and Rachel again. It would’ve been a hard ride from Leamington to Dover for 07:00 this morning. As much as I’m enjoying pootling along at 55mph on the XT, the world feels mighty larger than when I had the Bandit!
I’m at a proper campsite this evening to do a couple of little jobs on the bike that I didn’t do before leaving.
The campsite has put me over-budget for today, but only just. It’s a gorgeous evening here. I’m watching the sun set behind the trees, cup of tea in hand and the BBC World Service on the radio. Lovely.
Tomorrow should be a good long ride. I’m ditching a bunch of stuff that I brought – the bike was overloaded. Hopefully I’ll be camping in the foothills of the Alps tomorrow. Fingers crossed.