So we have made it down to Bielle, France which is just North of the road we are travelling tomorrow that will take us into Spain (Stage 4!) following the road up to Col du Pourtalet…

It’s been a great journey so far, starting with the trip from Yorkshire to Dover with a little stop to see my brother Chris in Gravesend on the way… Great to see Chris (must be about 18 months or more since we last saw each other in person rather than via FaceTime!) and had the bonus of seeing my niece Emily (also in person) and even my nephew Danny (via t’internet!) from his Uni digs in Brighton – it was great to see you all!

Spent overnight in a Premier Inn just outside Dover and then down to the Docks first thing Thursday (5th) morning where we were lucky enough to be offered a place on an earlier ferry and to Calais instead of Dunkirk, knocking about 40 Kms off the journey – hooray!

The weather was terrible yesterday – it was raining in Dover and never stopped until we were just outside our first night stop in France at Le Mans – famous for the 24 Hours of Le Mans – the world’s oldest active enduring sports car race (according to Wikipedia) as it’s been running since 1923… apparently, it’s among the most attended and prestigious motor sports events in the world!

Anyway, the rain in France was mad – torrential with lightening chucked in just to make life on the road even more testing! That said, we stuck mainly to the toll roads which, whilst a bit pricey, well worth the dosh as almost empty for most of the 270 mile journey! I still cannot quite believe it took approx 1.5 hours to travel the last 100 miles yesterday – it’s taken me that long to travel from home into Leeds some days and that’s just 23miles 🤣 – not missing that journey even though I didn’t do it too often!

Stage three has been a mammoth 430 miles today… we wanted to see a bit of the French countryside and thought that we would do this avoiding the toll roads – however, it was going to take us over 9 hours that way so we compromised and decided to take the toll roads to Bordeaux and then carry on with the non-toll roads from there… all went to plan until we got stuck in traffic just outside Bordeaux delaying us for an hour or so… what with the rain (yes, it seems the good weather went to the UK for a holiday 🤣🤣 – I definitely haven’t needed my sunglasses yet!), we stuck to the tolls all the way in the end. The journey, with stops still took us 9 hours! We’re chilling out this evening as feeling a little tired! Been fun so far though and are currently in a lovely hotel on the route we are taking through the Col du Pourtalet pass (Pyrenees) tomorrow!

So, tomorrow, we actually get to Spain! It’s only a short drive now to Jaca (approx 1.5 hours) where we have an Air BnB booked for the next 3 nights – it will be good to stay in the same place for a bit! Hope it stops raining so we actually get a better view of the mountains… here’s what we can see from our hotel this evening!

So, tomorrow we will say “Au revoir” France & “Ola” Espana and the sunshine hopefully! 🤞