nearly home

i'm now only 115 miles from cherbourg but it was a bit of a mission getting here.
the alps were amazing, some of the snow and ice covered mountain passes were a bit fun, doing a two wheel slide when there's a 1000 foot drop just over a crash barrier keeps you awake haha.
snowboarding was awesome, just about got the hang of it and doing the off-piste runs through the trees in the blizzard was amazing, although some of the trees are quite painful haha.

when i had to leave the honda wouldn't start because she was so cold so i lit my stove underneath the engine and she ran fine and i was on my way.

however 20 miles later she came to a stop on a long hill and wouldnt go again no matter how much i bumped her. i rolled into a very small village and asked two old men where the nearest garage is (i thought the spark plug was gone) and they said 10km away, this was bad. i pointed to my spark plug and one of them checked in his shed to see if he had a spare and he didnt :(.
then in one of the nicest kindest acts of compassion i have ever seen one of them took me and his friend in his car to the nearest town to buy a spark plug. all the garages were closed so he took me to the nearest city (Grenobles) where we just caught a bike shop before it closed. Bear in mind also that they don't know a single word of english and my french was getting quite strained now.
finally got back to the bike, new plug and she still wouldn't run. all the family of one of the guys came outside with torches to help and finally after changing the coil, she ran beautifully. not sure why the coil failed, but it did.
they then invited me inside for a hot meal, a coffee and cigarette (all mine got wet in a blizzard because i forgot to do up a pocket).
if that wasnt enough they then gave an enormous bag of cakes and a bottle of water for breakfast.

below is the family of one of the guys who helped me out so so so much. thank you.


these are the cakes, which were a very nice breakfast the next day.


i rode for another 80 miles after i fixed the bike before spotting this lovely shed at 1:30am, which made a lovely bedroom for the night.



the next day was fairly boring really, just kept riding. i had 300 miles to do so there wasnt much time to have a look around. finally stopped at 2am and hid under this hedge fior the night. try and spot the C90 hehe.

anyhow, i've got to ride to cherbourg now, only 115 miles and i'm, gonna treat my self to a hotel tonight.

peace out

Ed