In which Sid and Doris ride to Portsmouth for the evening ferry to Ouistreham.
First thing we set up the invaluable mascots to look after our good fortune in weather, stamina, route finding, weather, meeting fun people, finding interesting stops and weather.
Sid had developed a wily route to Portsmouth. Ride through the New Forest to Lymington and get the ferry to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight. Ride across the island to Ryde to take a ferry into Portsmouth. This removes the requirement to drag around the back side of Southampton on many useless little cycle paths. But it does put you at the mercy of the local ferries when you want to catch the big ferry. So we rode round the land route. On the way home we might try the IoW route when there is nothing riding on it all panning out.
We paused at Port Solent, from where S and D have sailed, to catch up with Lizzie and Les (and marvel at their thinness) before buzzing round the top end of Portsmouth Harbour to get to the Brittany Ferries’ Mont St Michel.
Bikes were loaded early so the dashing duo snared a forward facing dining table. Which was great until the ship left, at which point they closed the shutters on the front possibly to help the guys on the bridge retain their night sight?
Early to bed for a 5.30 Brit time docking in France. Bonne nuit.