We said our farewells to Pelvoux this morning and we’re on the road just after 8am. Pretty much exactly 13 hours later we reached Calais…

Before leaving town we stocked up on pastries from our local (and very well stocked) ‘Proxi’ store…

It was nearly 20°C cooler than when we’d arrived and it rained hard as we crossed the Col over to La Grave…

The journey was slow as usual getting out of the mountains, then a smooth ride along the toll roads, with various stops to brew coffee and cook dinner along the way. After checking into a hotel in Calais, we had a slight shock to find someone already in the room! Luckily the receptionist sorted things out quickly and gave us a different room and a few minutes later we were fast asleep…

After a few more final croissants and a good hotel breakfast we were back on the road at 7am and before the day had really got going we’d made it to Windsor where our welcome committee of Ben and co were waiting for us…