Day 2 - Journey to meet Paul & Eurovelo 6

 Well, I truly into 'this thing' now! My 4 day journey to rendevous with Paul is 50% complete. My first day is France was a delight!! 

I cycled 48 miles on some wonderful trials from the most truly sublime to the downright ridiculous........  remote forest trails, quiet country lanes, river and canal side trails, disused railway lines, and even one beach!! Garmin took me on a mystery tour of a farm where I had to negotiate long grass, heavily rutted trails, no less than 8 electric fences, 15 curious cows and lots of their dung over ½mile of quite tortured 'going'..... including one very difficult corn field! But it was a great day for the weather! 

Weather was lightly overcast to start then very clear, some light cloud, low 20'sC, and a mild SSW headwind.... the direction I was going!!🤣👍

Incredible it was to see so many cyclists heading over to France, all filled with enthuiasm for their journays ahead! There was a Dad with his 3 lads ages 16 to 19 embarking on a week long ride from St. Malo to Cherbourg, their first trip.of several so far in mainland Europe! Then there was Sophie and Marianne bearing SSE to Nice! So many others.... whole families including dogs in trailers.... I haven't seen a talking parrot yet, but it's early days!!

So, settling in well, all's a good'un!

Many days ahead!

PS- remind to tell you the funny toilet story.... there was bound to be one, but on Day 2, FFS!!😎👍

Ciao!

Day 1 Images&Learning to Blog!🤭

 

EuroVelo 6 - Day -4 of 60 something....🤷‍♂️....🤣😎👍

First Day of trek!

Had a great Bon Voyage from my good hearted wife Maria! Also from Laurence, David&Jackie and Bill and finally Deb (Paul's wife!). Thanks for turning out everybody!! Joined by Bob, Alan, Nick, Pat and Brick to various distances! All 4 ferry journeys gone to plan. Coffees galore thanks to Bob, Alan&Nick!! And as promised, I bought a round of drinks for Brick&I.... he insisted on buying round 2!! A lovely summer day's ride! All I wanted was a pleasant departure from home on this nearly 3,000 mile Cycling Odyssey!!🤞😎👍 Perfick!!🤙

Ferry journey to France was fabulous! Brittany Ferries do it well. 

Met a Turkish small ferry pilot who once went to Constanta when he was young, Paul&I final stop on the trek and the point we'll have a dip in The Black Sea! 

All for now, ferry in St. Malo, so with the UK Leg now complete, my foreign adventure is just about to begin.... first task, croissant and coffee!😋

As Maria pointed out, I'm always thinking about my 'tum' it's fuel my Dear! A Bientot!

Doug&Paul's BackStory Leading to our 'Europe Coast2Coast' Adventure!

Europe Coast2Coast covers 10 countries from the Atlantic in the West to The Black Sea in the East, and is approximately 3,000 miles (5,000km) long.

Eurovelo 6 is a route we’ve both known about for years, but to be honest Paul has pushed the issue, but a little goes a long way with Doug, and as such, Doug heads off from home in Bournemouth England on 28 August to rendezvous with Paul in St. Nazaire, France on 31 August for our big ride east towards Romania and a swim in The Black Sea!

We are fully intending to Cyclo-Camp the entire route, and we are expecting it will take approximately 2 months to complete.

Needless to say, although we are attempting this crazy ride for adventure seeking fun, the serious side is to harness the generosity of our very many friends from our 130 yrs of combined life to do some good. Paul and I both have a great interest in supporting the Motor Neuron Disease (ALS in Canada&USA) Research charitable efforts. This debilitating disease is taking, or has taken friends from all of us, including numerous sports personalities, all recently made more public in The UK through the gargantuan efforts of the rugby community. This disease knows no bounds and blights the life of not just the victim, be also their families and friends. There simply is not enough support for this disease.

We are both true believers in ‘Charity beginning at home’, so we have set up 3 different websites for different countries of our family and most friends so your generous contributions may go to help people like those mentioned above in your part of the world. Please can you help support our crazy adventurous challenge by helping us in any way you can!

United Kingdom Donors

www.justgiving.com/page/doug-ramsay-and-paul-bergson-ride-ev6-2023-mnd-europe-c2c  

Canadian Donors

http://support.alsevents.ca/ramsay-bergson-ride-ev6-2023-als-europe-c2c

United States Donors

www.justgiving.com/page/doug-ramsay-and-paul-bergson-ride-ev6-2023-als-europe-c2c     

Special mention goes to our dear wives Maria and Deborah for their ongoing tolerance….. perhaps we should really be acting our age, but hell, that would be boring!!

If you wish to follow our exploits there will be daily posts on Strava via your smart phone app…. Look for Doug Ramsay, or Paul Bergson!

Or via our blog,

https://eurovelo6ramsaybergson2023.blogspot.com/

And/or via Facebook on a slightly less frequent basis, but with no less content but for technical ride details.

Thanks very much in anticipation!

Doug & Paul