In which Sid and Doris take another ferry and return to England.
We finished the laundry in Les Armateurs by drying the cycling shorts with the hotel standard hairdryer, the first time in many years that Sid has found this item at all useful.
Even early on we are looking for conveyance of the day. We have cyclist company in the ferry queue. Possibly the losing vehicle is a one wheeled bike trailer which the unhappy owner finds interferes with his steering. For us the ferry itself is a contender, vying with a traditional fishing boat and some sort of converted orange life boat.
We take the ‘leaving of Liverpool’ picture and settle down to a day of idleness with our extensive Carrefour City picnic, barber shop in the headphones for Doris and copies of Autocar and the FT for Sid. Of course Sid has had the French papers but the ease which which stuff just falls through the eyes into the head is a great treat.
Coming into Portsmouth we see the true winner of conveyance of the day: the new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Not sure the UK can afford planes for it yet but it is a great thing.
Riding through Portsmouth feels normal, even carefully keeping to the left hand side of the road. We use the new cycle path through the area that used to be all scrap and heavy metal leftovers. Cosham is just off Portsea island and chosen to give us a little lift on the Wednesday morning. Looking for a Sterling cashpoint we ride up Cosham High Street. We have not felt at all threatened in the last 104 days but we wait until four loud and aggressive youths have cleared through before standing at the ATM. Welcome home. And we spent a slightly uneasy night as the hotel said we had to leave the bikes outside – first time on the whole trip.
Nephew James comes to collect us for dinner with the Burt family in Southsea. [The Cosham receptionist was well impressed – “oooh! it’s really posh down there”.] Fabulous hospitality from Lizzie as ever. Back to Cosham in good spirits (Campari, gin) and ready for the next leg across England.