by And he had a good point. T’is the day before leaving, I made a pile of stuff to pack, started packing and was overawed by the amount of it. I took a few things out and tried again, the bike is now outside as evening falls and is chocker-blocker full and I still haven’t got my wash stuff and laptop in. I tried hard to balance weight left and right and fore and aft, not to put fluids in with elctronics, not to put cooking stuff in with clothes and to make sure that rain things are quickly accessible. It was like 3D Tetris, a nightmare. To paraphrase E. Ferstl: the difference betweeen theory and practice is far greater in practice than in theory. He really hit the nail on the head with that one.
Anyway, departure time is tomorrow morning about 10 ish after getting all the kids off to their various schools. The routes are loaded up on the navigator, the plan is to get from southern Hesse in Germany to Thoirette in France which is a good start point to either go left and do Combe Laval or press on down the Rhone valley southwards depending on the weather. There’s going to be a fair amount of pacing down larger roads and autobahns/autoroutes so have put the insulation lining into trousers and jacket. Chain is lubed and have oiled all the usual peripheries.
Tally-ho!
