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Around Valence 22nd March to 9th April

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We are now staying with friends. One lives one side of the Rhone in the Ardeche and the other on the other side, in the Drome Region. We had originally planned to visit for a few days, however, due to the weather we have been here over 2 weeks! The day we arrived we had blue skies and sunshine, which lasted the first day! Since then we have had a lot of rain, thunder, lightning and hail. Our friends have very kindly said we can stay as long as we like. We have spent some time mending broken things eg. the bike repair kit bag, which virtually disintegrated and the sleeping mat, which we have now accepted cannot be fixed easily! We went to the Salon des Vin de France for a wine tasting event and tasted many wines from around France - some good, some not to our taste and not worth the high price. One sunny day we explored Valence. There are some very pretty parks and lots of historical buildings. We saw the Maison de Tete and a house where Napoleon used to live. We wandered the
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Nevers to Valence 18th-22nd March

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THE ROUTE From Nevers we followed the Loire down to Decize. At the first little town a man on a barge was trying to lift a very heavy canopy on his boat. Darryl went to help and in return the man lent us his stand pump, as the little pump we have did not seem man enough to pump up our tyres. All tyres fully inflated we continued on our way. We found a supermarket with a large cycle parts section and purchased another pump. Hopefully this one will help inflate our tyres when needed! At Decize we had a decision to make. Do we go left or right? Both routes would end in the same place. We decided to turn right as this route followed the Canal Lateral A La Loire. The canal paths are very beautiful, tree lined with lovely little villages along the way with good places to camp and pick up food supplies. In the pretty little village of Gannay Sur Loire, having just enjoyed our picnic lunch, we noticed yet another puncture! Wheel off, tyre off and we found a thorn in the tyre! New inne
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Le Havre to Nevers (7th-18th March)

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We have been cycling for 2 weeks now and have covered a lot of ground.  We have had varying weather of heavy rain, scattered showers and dry but cold.  Night's in the tent have been pretty cold! THE ROUTE (Le Havre) After our last night in a 'proper bed' for a while, we stocked up on food and headed out of Le Havre. We cycled through farmland to a pretty little town called Harfleur and then on to Lillebonne. We saw 2 massive birds nesting at the top of a post. Our first night camping was beside the river, very tranquil. (First night camping on the River Seine) We followed the Seine down to Rouen. This is funky town with lots of bars and restaurants all along the river. Unfortunately the heavens opened just as we approached so, after taking shelter for a while we continued on to find a camping spot for the night, this time near a railway line. From Rouen we headed throy St Aubin Les Ebeuf and Les Andleys following the river.  We saw lots of beautiful houses and chateau
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Ferry to France

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After a leisurely breakfast we loaded our bikes up again and headed off towards the ferry port, via Waitrose! The cycle ride was only 3.8km. We arrived and checked in and were sent to a cycle stand to wait for our 11.30am ferry to Le Harve. Although the sun was shining there was a rather cold breeze. We boarded the ferry, secured our bikes and headed up to the deck to watch as we pulled out of Portsmouth. We saw the naval base, HMS Victory, the Spinnaker Tower and the old fort. It all looked glorious with the blue skies and sunshine. We saw about 10 cars on the ferry and a couple of vans, that was it! Inside we counted approximately 16 people, so there was plenty of choice of seats! We wandered around the bar area, restaurant and duty free. We found some seats and watched the world go by ... for a while ... until we both fell asleep in the warmth of the sun shining through the window. We passed over a shipping lane where suddenly there appeared to be boats all over the place.
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Portsmouth

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Up at 6.55 to meet our 7am breakfast slot. Breakfast was amazing and we ate the lot from dried fruit to double bacon and eggs. All washed down with posh coffee - awesome. Packing the bikes was easy but it takes a little bit of time ... We started our journey about 8.30. We passed our friend's house, his kids school and his allotment. We got a little lost in Southampton due to road closures but after a little back tracking from the scary dual carriageway, all was good. A lot of our route followed the National Cycle Trail 246, however it kept disappearing into nowhere. We eventually found it again but miles away from where we last saw the signs. We passed over lots of water today, saw lots of boats and had puncture number 2! Fixed, we headed off again. A few diversions, some nice tracks and now we could see the Spinnaker tower in the distance. This added a little motivation to the pedalling. A quick stop in Waitrose to stock up on goodies and we arrived at our destination - Portsmout
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Pedal Power

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The rain came in early and it didn't stop but we had to leave or we wouldn't make it to our destination-Lyndhurst in the New Forest. We loaded our bikes, said goodbye and started our journey through the rain. First puncture on Darryl's bike 3 miles in! Tube replaced in the rain. Next, a bridge was closed blocking our route over to the Avon Causeway. We diverted - 6 miles! We made our way through small country lanes and it was a pleasant route. However, the rain had caused extensive flooding and we diverted again! Into the New Forest, passed wild horses, dead badgers and many deer. It was a little hilly and hard work on loaded bikes. The rain eventually stopped and we started to get a little warm so off came the big yellow ponchos. Not super stylish but they kept us dry.  We decided to take a main road due to various floods. The cars were a little fast and furious however it got us to Lyndhurst before dark. We have stored our bikes carefully inside our rather luxurious accom
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5am ...

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The alarm worked! We were ready to go! Breakfast with our last rupees at the 24 hour caf'. Short walk. Bag rearrangement and we checked in at the desk. First flight to Abu Dhabi - done! We needed to pass immigration to change airline. All went well. Next stop - Bucharest. Smooth check in, good flight and an over night at the airport. Sleep? We watched an opera playing in a lounge and snoozed. When the sun came up we found a shop and bought some bananas and baguette to fill our tummies. At 8am we headed out to find a bus into the center of Bucharest.  We found the bus stop and a ticket machine.  Purchased 2 tickets and we were on our way.  It was a little chilly but the sun was shining.  We hoped off in the centre of the city and first headed to the parliament building, which is huge!  We wander d though a little park and went in search of coffee.  We were surprised to find that coffee as quite expensive, on a par with the UK which we hadn't expected.  However, we found one chai
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