Nearly Ready Again

May 2015.

It's all here somewhere!

Preparations for the commencement of La Velodyssee are moving apace, which is just as well as the intended departure date is only three days away! The resident purveyor of all things mechanical has scoured the barn for ‘stuff ‘and, unsurprisingly, numerous ‘must haves’ have proved difficult to locate, lurking, as they are, underneath lots of other ‘stuff’ which is not on the inevitable LIST and thus not required.  However, the sprawling heap of ‘indispensable stuff’ now litters the floor and simply requires the usual effort of packing a quart into a pint pot. (For those of you of tender years, a quart is, or used to be, two pints or a quarter of a gallon). The volume is, however, slightly reduced as we have decided to avoid campsites in favour of B and B to preserve, as best we can, the old bones and all the other old bits. Thus the tent has been superseded by orange survival bags and  space blankets!  As neither of these is conducive to a good night’s rest, and probably a target for the emergency services, we trust the guide books deliver their promise of plentiful comfortable accommodation.

Thanks to satnav we can get lost so much more accurately

Mr. Mechanic has serviced trailers and bikes. My important contribution was to road test my equipment and observe the behaviour of the wheels on Al’s trailer which wobbled wildly last year until the tyres were changed. I could report that they were straight and non- wobbly. Whew! The road test went well. What went less well was the performance of legs and lungs! Nothing new there then.

We leave for Brittany on Friday and have only one tinsy problem – at the moment we are without transport as the bonnet cable on the car is f……( broken).  Having managed to prise open the bonnet a hole was discovered in the condenser for the air conditioning. Heyho. Tomorrow though all will be well?!

The stalwarts, in the form of Brendan and Deborah, have volunteered again to accompany us to the start and return the car home and, even pick us up at the finish. That Brendan is unable to drive yet due to his new hip still requiring care, makes Deborah’s contribution all the more praiseworthy. We are really, really grateful, honest.

What will unfold on our first day of cycling is, as ever, a mystery. Our original intention of leaving Roscoff and cycling back to our weekend B and B is looking ever more optimistic. Me thinks, 100kms and 1200m of climbing is probably a tad unrealistic for an introduction! You must wait, dear reader, with bated breath, for the first foray onto La Velocittee.