Sorry for the large gap! Stress has been my middle name recently and I have not visited or updated as I should :/
I have also secured some additional webspace
Wednesday 8th,
Awake fairly early today, thanks to an early night, the light streaming through partially open curtains and some noisy neighbours!
The plan for today was to drive down to Mont pellier, the room had been booked and we were planning to check in for about 9pmish!
This was the route
planned After a hearty breakfast with our host and 'pepper' the dog (who i blamed for all the smells)
we finished packing and placed the cases back onto the bikes. I adjust the damping on the back with a few twists as I had decreased it for the jolly's in the mountains!
We tied some mascots to the bikes that the girls had bought the day before in chamonix. I had freddy frog and Danm had the elephant! After some careful fixing to the bikes (cable ties) we started the bikes and prepared to battle the highway.
Thats when it happened, Danm jumped on his bike and promptly fell off! Sideways! not moving! The luggage rack took most of the weight as danm sprawled away. The plastics thankfully took no pounding, and only the front indicator was pushed in.
Not so bad, still rideable!
Next time Danm is more careful getting on, and we set off into Chamonix for some fuel. Its about 10am, we have almost 5 hours of riding ahead + stops!
After filling up with fuel, Danm takes the lead (he has sat nav) and I follow!
About 90mins later, we stop for a break and the ladies have a quick snack.
After a quick 10mins, we continue on our journey. Then disaster strikes! I miss a Danm's turn signal and carry on as he joins another motorway. I exit at the next toll booth, double back and catch up with danm waiting at the side of the road. A near disaster which add about 2€ onto the toll cost. It lost us about 30mins!
We stopped at the next aire de .... resting place
Now a good half way into todays route, we are eager to continue. We start to ride towards big mountains! Enter a few tunnels with lights that race by!
We stop and find somewhere to eat and fuel up. A local farmers shop is found and we have the cheapest and most enjoyable food of our trip.
Fresh soft cheese and freshly baked bread
nom nom nom!
After a good fill, we move off into hell! We hit queuing traffic and like good bikers. We filter between lanes until we get to the front.
Oops, time for another break!
After what seems a few hours, we were redirected back down the carriageway onto the last slip road and diverted away from our route.
We twisting through traffic and down country roads until we reach the next junction. We grabbed our toll ticket, the barrier raised, we drove through .... only to find Danm limping to a halt in front of us.
His bike had died! We pushed it to the side of the road. We all dismounted as his bike would not start. It would only make a ticking noise
Some police arrive, not to help us, but to direct traffic from the queues that were appearing from the diverted traffic. We donned our hi vis jackets and started taking danm's bike apart. Seat came off, tank came off!
My seat came off! the battery came out! We swapped batteries and danm's bike started! All good! I bumped the NTV to life in the exit lane of the toll booth much to the local police mans amusment. We left the NTV ticking over whilst we fitted the tank and seat onto Danm's bike.
We set off again
Time is getting late and the sun is starting to set. We are making good progress on the autoroute until danm's bike stalls again! This time, he manages to coast into an aire de .....
This is not great! Danm does have breakdown cover, but they do not recover from the motorway. You have to be in a town. Only the police can recover vehicles from the motorway, and thats about 80€ plus a three hour wait.
Its 10pm, its dark and we are stuck at a service station. Danm's bike is not charging and my bike is not able to charge batteries as quickly as danm can drain them!
We have to get to the next town! From there we can sleep and find some spares! The next town is orange, but can we make it there on a battery thats been in my bike for an hour?.....