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Day 11 - To Cherbourg, Manche, Normandy - 132 miles
Day 11
Day 11 profile
For the last day I again changed my mind on the route. Abandoning my preplanned route, which I had previously ridden and, bolstered by my flawless navigation the previous day, I decided to re-draw the route setting the parameters at "shortest" and avoiding motorways if possible. There, that should be challenging. We also decided to see how far we could go before Andy's fuel warning light would come on (meaning he had just less than 3 litres). We had fuelled up 48 miles before Châteauxberg and felt comfortable trying this experiment today as it wasn't raining, it wasn't a Bank Holiday and there were plenty of petrol stations en route.
As we only had 132 miles to get to Cherbourg we were allowed a lie in and a late breakfast. The weather was great. The first bit of sun for 4 days. We were on the bikes at 10:56. Up the D105 towards Fougères.
Near Val D'Izé we stopped to take a picture of this picturesque little town.
Val D'Izé
The onwards to Fougères. Straight through the middle. North towards Avranche and a two mile stretch of the A84 before branching off again onto the N2175. We stopped in Avranche by the Jardin des Plantes at 12:15 had a quick recce of the garden and took a few pictures as it overlooks the Baie Du Mont Saint Michel and had lunch en terrasse at the nearby restaurant.
Baie Du Mont Saint Michel
Back on the road at 13:50 we continued northwards by country roads. We got to Valognes before Andy called for a fuel stop - 161 miles from our last refuel. Actually the fuel consumption on the two bikes was comparable. The ST had been doing slightly better on the motorways in spite of my non-standard higher gearing, but on the country roads the Fireblade was slightly better probably due to its lighter weight.
When we got on the N13 and to Saint Joseph the GPS shortest route calculation took us onto the slip road with the prediction that the slip road rejoins the N13 the other side of Saint Joseph. It doesn't - somebody in the French highways department had seen to that. A quick decision took us right up the D146 past a very surprised Frenchman mowing his lawn - I don't suppose they see many vehicles go through Saint Joseph these days!
Actually I am glad we took this little detour as previously I had thought the area around Cherbourg as being unattractive but once off the N13 there are some lovely little villages.
Entry into Cherbourg was made down some interesting little side streets and apart from getting into the wrong lane to turn into the ferry terminal we made no mistakes.
We arrived at 16:25 and waited for the ferry. There was a couple of GoldWings waiting as well, one had a trailer - and I thought my bike was heavily loaded!
When I have previously travelled on this ferry the bikes are put at the front and so almost first off. This time we were placed at the back.
We were off the ferry at 22:57 BST and once I had got us out of Poole and onto the A35 I set Andy in front (he had volunteered) so I could relax and follow - much easier.
We arrived home at 01:05. Andy couldn't rouse his family to let him in. Mine didn't even hear me so I didn't speak to them until the following morning - some welcome home for the weary travellers!
Stats (including Poole to home)
Moving time 5:31
231 miles
Moving Av 41.8 mph
Overall Av 35.6 mph
Total Time 6:29
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