special request to all

I have a request to all of you listening out there.

 

I received an email today that Sierra Designs will replace a faulty fly (peeling seam seals) and need an address to send the replacement to (where I can pick it up en-route.)

 

If anybody has any contacts that live/work in Germany, particularly Berlin or East Germany (to allow time for delivery). Please let me know.

 

Any others in Czech Republic or Austria would also be possible alternatives.

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Email: jeffrjames@gmail.com
Photo's: www.whereonearthisjeff.com
Blog: www.groups.google.com/group/whereonearthisjeff

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www.whereonearthisjeff.com

UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Belgium

Well I did as I said I might and caught a ferry from Calais to Dover, but I only lasted 1 night in the UK before getting homesick for France.  After arriving at Dover about 6:00pm I departed again about 9:30 the following day. Don't ask for a reason there isn't one, just a whole lot if little things that made me want to go back.  I had been travelling cheap in France camping out, buying ingredients & self catering all meals.  The UK bit was unplanned (even more unplanned than the rest of the trip) and I was going to be without camping & cooking gear and paying for everything, it also included a train journey that was going to rather expensive to see some people that I wasn't able to contact.  I decided that cheap and friendly in France was more inviting and the return ferry fare was cheap.

After heading back to Calais I went up the coast, crossed Belgium and headed into Holland, where I caught another ferry from Breskens to Vlissingen.  Then back around to Belgium for some more experience of a temporary home and real meals.  In Antwerpen I stayed with Sven & Crista a couple I met on my Tibet trip a couple of years ago, and I'm writing this from the home of Sue Gorie who some of you will know from many years ago in Ringwood, and now lives out of Brussels.  Of the only contacts that I knew I had before I left Aus, I've visited them on consecutive nights.

I've posted some more photos today, ones from Villers-Bretonneux ANZAC service through to my first crossing of the border of France & Belgium.

 

1 .Christophe at home in Paris

2. Me on the Eiffel

3. Poppie

4. He stood perfectly still and had thousands of photos taken

5. A bottle cap but it works (for those that know their MSR's)

6. The Somme downstream

So far

Total distance:  approx 2500km since Barcelona

Punctures: Nil

Bike breakdowns: Nil

Falls: 1: yep, no damage other than pride, 2 days ago, check out the stinging nettle photo on Page 1  of the Benelux photo album

Jeff

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Email: jeffrjames@gmail.com
Photo's: www.whereonearthisjeff.com
Blog-almost: www.groups.google.com/group/whereonearthisjeff

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www.whereonearthisjeff.com

Paris and Beyond

Well, here I am in Boulogne, France. Been to Paris, done the tower,
the Champs, Notre Dame, and of course got the photo of the fully laden
bike in front of said Eiffel Tower.
And just for the experience been told off by the police for taking my
bike to the centre of the round-about containing the Arc de Triumphe.

I had a wonderful couple of days in Paris, did a lap of circuit used
at the end of the last stage of Le Tour de France. Still debating who
won... My local guide Christophe or myself. Have been staying here
with him - right in Paris CBD - after meeting in a tiny town where i
was eating lunch - before I hit the outer suburbs. So I've had a
personal guide in Christophe & personal chef in Veronique, sure beats
billy pasta.

Paris was a little rushed as a check on the web revealed that my
intended timetable of Villers-Bretonneux for April 25th would put me
there 4 days too late.

Since Paris I've been to The Somme ANZAC day commemorations at
Villers-Bretonneux, (April21st) (don't know if I made it into any
channel 7 news footage). A little bit special for me as my Grandfather
was here in 1916 in the first AIF until being transferred after being
injured in action, and living his remaining years with the shrapnel to
prove it..

From here its up to Calais and a possible UK holiday for a week.
Cheating with only two Panniers and no camping gear, and using public
transport - I never said I'd do it all on bike. Then back to the
original load and plan of Belgium, Germany and beyond.

I've posted photos as far as Paris in my photo gallery, so if you
haven't seen those they're waiting for you at the normal place
www.whereonearthisjeff.com

The legs are doing pretty well, no knee issues as yet, which is pretty
good since I'm 2000km into the trip. I had a bad right shin for a
couple of weeks but that too seems to have passed. The suntan's doing
well, especially the legs and face.

I'dheard all the stories of the arrogant, unhelpfull French, and I did
find her in the hostel in Lyon. Hard to believe that so many other
tourists have met that same girl. The french for me have been
marvelous. And yes it has mostly been tiny ville's, but the reputation
of Parisians was shattered before I even got there with my first ever
home stay with Christophe & Veronique.

Got to free up this PC for some others. Please excuse any missing
spaces as this Mac doesn't have a working spacebar.

Jeff

PS. pasting spaces is very tedious!!!

France near Gien, (approx 50km east of Orleans)

Apr 12th 2007 - Gien, France


Well it's been a while since I wrote anything, I'm now in France and have riden up from the east coast to the river Rhone and then up the Rhone Valley to Lyon. On the way I've spent a few days in Nimes and a couple in Lyon then on through St Etienne to the top of the Loire Valley - which I'm now heading down in the general direction of North and towards Paris. Some absolutely amazing roman ruins in some of these places.

Once again I'm pressed for time so I'll direct you to www.whereonearthisjeff.com to see the photos.

Hopefully there are some uploading while I write this... (yep ed.)

After my last mail (lunch near the border) I headed into Perpignan and stumbled across the Youth Hostel en-route to a camping ground. That was the start of an episode I'd rather forget happened, so I wont tell anybody Sshhh. When reaching for my passport to check-in I found that i didn't have it. Mmm The last time I'd used it was two days earlier - as the orchard didn't require it. After a frantic search on the web, and a bit of thanks to google maps - to identify the road of the last camp ground I made a phone call and yes they had it. There were many ways to get it back the the most reliable and hassle free was to hire a car and go get it. So bright and early the next day off i go back to Spain. It was rather strange driving back in a morning the road that I'd spent the past two days riding, i found that I knew so much detail of what was there and what was coming up. You get to learn the landscape, the road, the bends, the hills, and the bumps individually when you do them on a bike. In the car its a flash and it's gone. For the route back to France, once I had the little blue book, was a more leisurely trip via the coast, which I'd missed earlier by border crossing in the hills.
HINT: If riding on a bike, cross in the hills. (I'd made the right choice)
Next day from Perpignan to a bush camp overlooking Sete, then on to Nimes and the Youth Hostel to wash clothes & recharge batteries.
I spent a couple of days in Nimes looking around and doing some sightseeing with some others that I met in the hostel (sightseeing by car).
From Nimes to a camp north of Orange then Orange to Crest, Crest to Hauterives then onto Lyon. The next day out from Lyon was St Etienne, moving from the Rhone Valley (flowing south to the Mediterranean sea) to the Loire valley flowing north then west to the Atlantic. The hills on this stretch weren't as bad as id thought they'd be given what they do to the flow of the rivers. At St Etienne - or 15km out from it - is another Youth Hostel and the surrounds were so nice i stayed an extra day to soak them in. I'm getting slack 2 nights in Lyon, then a days ride and 2 nights in St Etienne... The hostel there is actually set on the Loire so heading down the valley from there was navigational very easy.

Since then I've had some stunning days of cruising down the Loire valley, easy going, very pretty and so typically what i was thinking about France.

Had a minor milestone 2pm yesterday when I rode off my map of southern France, so I feel like I'm getting somewhere..

Jeff