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Afraid the last London post wouldn't publish so I'll try again at a future date

We're there

Full English breakfast ! It was lovely but I don't know how we're going to bike on it?  

It was drizzling and we could hear the traffic already. Not a good sign.

As we left town we passed over the Basingstoke canal. Didn't even know they had one !

This last leg has definitely been the most difficult as there is no clear bike route and the traffic is heavy. Bracknell had good cycleways but weren't easy to find

Finally, the county of Berkshire . Not far now

That's the one we're looking for . Holyport ,where our friends Andy and Mandy live.

And finally ,the 'local' . The White Hart ,for a very welcome pint with our old friends. 

And Daisy of course.  It's been a great trip, met some lovely people and have really had no problems except the minor thefts in La Rochelle ,One broken spoke and about 7 flat tyres in 3,000 kms

   It didn't take as long as we thought so we'll try to bring our flights forward a couple of weeks. The next blog will be in about a week when we fly out.

  Cheers

  

ENGLAND

It was 7.30 before we got away from Portsmouth wharf. Being Sunday morning it was really quiet and we followed a cycleway west on the A27.

   At Fareham we turned North on the A32 and took advantage of the quiet morning to make good time to Alton

Typical of these 'A 'roads the hedgerows left little  space to move over. Bit scary if a lot of traffic comes along. This morning it seemed to be sports cars and motorbikes

At Alton we altered course to get us on a quieter road and found a nice little pub in Odiham. Too tired to go any further !

2 pubs actually. The one on the right is the' Bel and the Dragon'and the left one is called 'Next Door' that's our room up in the roof. Love it !

We'll finish our ride tomorrow !😄

Tourists

This is a 'hole in the wall' Ida takes our dosh at a terrible exchange rate

The Jersey natives think we're mugs. 

Back in St Helier we watched the boats taking people out to the castle.

 

If they'd waited until low tide they could have walked out !   That's a tidal swimming pool in the forground

I've got an old scarifier like that at home. There were 2 of them at it

    We rode around to St Aubins. By now it was low tide so I walked out to the fort

After lunch it was time to go and see the occupation story at the underground hospital

NZ Red Cross parcels helped keep them from starving after D Day

Later we filled in time at a fair until our ship came in 

We were first on but we missed out on a cabin and slept on the floor in our sleeping bags . It's an over nighter and we'll arrive at 6.30 am Sunday 

Jersey

There were more bikes than cars on this mornings ferry. Great place to catch up with other cyclists and what they were up to. The fast ferry only takes an hour and a half

OMG  It's not even 20 degrees when we land at St Helier. First time in 2 months I've had to swap the Japanese safety boots for shoes

The first priority was to have a SCONE. This tea shop is in liberation square and the statue shows the locals raising the British flag on liberation day. Being the only part of Britain occupied by the Germans during the war, a lot of tourism focus's on the occupation.

  While I was taking a shot of my scone a bloody seagull swooped down and took it.! Never got the shot but the lady gave me another scone !

  

Our guest house is on the other side of the island in Bouley Bay . We followed a bike trail through narrow lanes hardly wide enough for cars much less tractors

 It's started drizzling ! I'm afraid we've turned into a couple of whimps so took shelter

It's cleared up now and we really like the 'Undercliff Hotel'

There's a dive school in the bay as there's several wrecks out there including a Dakota Bomber from the war

It's low tide and I sat and watched fascinated as this cray fisherman came in from his pots. Never moan about your boat ramps again

His dad worked the controls and told me all about the life of a Jersey crab fisherman

He said it's only a small tide today at 34 feet. A big one is over 40 feet !  Struth !

He only had a small order to fill today so the rest were left in floating storage bins out near the pots. He works 400 pots and checks them every day. They also net fish ,and, get abalone (paua) which can sell for £20 each. 

Overlooking all this is the Liecester gun battery (1696 ) There's at least one of these guarding every bay that can land a boat

The pub over there is the Black Dog and has got a Guiness waiting for me. 😜