Day 30 - Reims to Home

Our final day was a dull and grey one, for the most part and not particularly warm. Probably the coolest day we'd had, outside of the mountains. Besides booking us on an earlier train, the night before, I agreed I'd get up earlier too, so we could get on the road earlier. We wanted to give us as much leeway as possible, as we had 2 stops, as well as fuel stops to make and wanted to buy some beers. I ditched my trainers to make way for some tinnies! Grizzly also wanted time to buy tobacco products at duty free, for the family back home. So, we probably left an hour earlier, with 193 miles to cover.

Our first stop, was only about 10 miles away, at the old Reims-Gueux motor racing circuit. It ceased being used back in 1972 and most has disappeared but the stands and pits, plus some other buildings, are still intact and are looked after by a volunteer group, Friends of Gueux Circuit. We parked off the main road, on what would have been pit lane and took some photos.

Ginny, not quite ready to race!

The Old Jaguar Pit

The plaque between the Jaguar names, commemorates the winning of the Reims 12 hour race on 4th July 1954, by a D-Type Jaguar. That was the maiden victory for the D-Type. D-Types also took second and third in the race! A jolly good show! I think it is possible to go inside some of the other buildings but we were way too early and wouldn't have had time anyway. Still the pits and stands are impressive, stuck out amongst the fields.

Some 60 miles up the road, we stopped for fuel. At that point someone decided they needed the toilet. We popped back up the road, only a few hundred metres, to McDs. Maybe we were too early, they don't seem to open until 10am, or this was the least popular restaurant on the planet. We pressed on. Our next planned stop was a McDs anyway, so that was where we stopped, for coffee and chips, after the previously aborted task had been completed.

With an eye on the clock, we needed to keep on the move. We still had another stop to make and it would be touch and go, if we had enough time to do everything before we needed to check-in.

The next stop, was a special treat for Grizzly. He's mad keen on murals and this place has loads of them, painted on the outer walls of the cemetery. We probably spent another 15-20 minutes there but were soon back on the road.

Mural depicting Bleriot reaching Dover

We had a slight issue with the next route, well more in the decision which to use. We both had enough fuel to reach Blighty. The next route, however, included another fuel stop. Given the higher price in France, we decided to skip that route and head directly to the tunnel. That route was longer but faster. It did mean though, that we had to find a supermarket en-route, if I was to get any beers. 

I didn't throw away my trainers for nothing, so when I saw an Auchan supermarket a little further up the road, in we went. I picked up 4 cans of strong beers and Grizzly grabbed a couple of bottles of Heineken for when he got to the Travelodge later.

The last part of the route took us onto the motorway, so we made good time and arrived at the check-in booths just under 2 hours before our scheduled train. We were offered one an hour earlier, which we accepted but it did mean we'd be pushed for time, for Grizzly to get his duty free baccy. Time pushed on even more over the next 20 or so minutes.

We sailed through French border control. Passport, check photo, stamp, Merci! Done in 10 seconds flat. Then the fun began. We were directed to one of the 3 long queues for UK border control. We must have sat in that queue for 20 minutes, then, when I finally got the the booth, the girl gets up and buggers off, to be replaced by a bloke, who tells me I have to wait, as the system needs to reboot at a shift change! FFS! As if they aren't bloody slow enough. All they have to do is place the passport in a scanner, look at your face and hand it back. How come then it takes them so much longer than the French? Anyone who complains about the French messing us about because of Brexit, needs to see this debacle for themselves. It ain't the French!!

The benefit, if you can take a positive of this delay was, that we pretty much rode straight through onto the train, Grizzly being the last on. 

There were 2 other bikers, adventure bikers both with KTMs. One had massive metal panniers, offside larger than the other and 2 bags strapped on top of them, a massive one, on the offside. Now, some of you may see where this is leading. Once the train got going and the bikes bounced around a bit, one highly unbalanced KTM decided to have a lie down! First time I've ever seen a bike fall over. The two guys and Grizzly helped right it, whilst I supervised. 😉 It stayed upright after that but the suspension looked very bouncy even so. If only he'd balanced the load. There was no damage, so no harm done.

Off at Folkestone, we rode in convoy for the last time, so I could show Grizzly where to fill up. Fill up complete, we had the usual end of tour man hug and I led him back to the motorway, where I left him.

I was home about 16:15. Catherine came out to greet me and we had our first hug in a month. Then her friend came round. they had some tea and went out, leaving me to unpack. That done, I slumped in front of the TV to catch up with some of my bike racing programmes that had recorded whilst I was away. There's a lot of them!

And that my friends, concluded my tour. I have covered over 4,000 miles over the passed month, I'm not sure exactly and Ginny clocked over the 33,000, as I said she would, the day we left. There will be some stats following on, as usual but for now, That's All Folks!