Luke: trip so far

Only post number two and it has been a few days now. This hasn't been from lack of effort on our part, mainly lack of facilities from which to post our adventures.

To start with I'm having a bit of struggle with this french keyboard. Why do some keys have to be changed round? This is my excuse for any spelling mistakes rather than my poor english/typing.

Anyway, back to the adventures of Luke and Phil: straight off the ferry and we had our first race. To be slightly more accurate a bunch of french school children tried to race us but nevertheless we still turned it on and won. The fact the oldest of them was about 12 and they were all riding BMXs did take a bit of shine off the victory but the score still stands. Race One = Victory. Total: Luke/Phil 1, Europe Nil.

The rest of the first day was pretty uneventful. Had a bit of a struggle finding a spot to pitch our tent due the complete lack of hedgrows, trees etc to hide our illicit camping. In the end we plumped for a bunch of trees up a side road north of Arras. Now these trees were surrounded by barbed wire and there was a bunch of big red signs stuck on them but our french to english translation decided it said "Welcome".

2nd day was more of the same. We thought that everything was shut the day before due it being Sunday but it appears that some french shops just decide if and when they want to open. This has meant we have had to take provisioning slightly more seriously. Therefore second night we actually made an effort to get food and get the gas stove out for it's first outing. I cooked up a pasta/frankfurter/tomatoe sauce extravaganza which Phil said was "the best I've ever tasted".

As we have progressed the scenery has definitely got more interesting however this has also resulted in more hills. Navigation efforts are now squarely on keeping to river valleys when at all possible especially due to the increasing temperature.

At some point in this space of time we had our second race (I am determined to call it that). Cycling past houses with dogs, as expected, brings them to their front fench barking to "protect" their territory. When this is a slightly bigger dog, the phrase "I hope that can't get out of there" normally springs to mind. Smaller dogs normally bring a smile. Except in this case. When cycling along a quiet country lane a rather rabid looking ball of fluff came yapping out at us. Phil, as is his way, barked back at it which caused it to dive through the fence and chase us up the road. We actually had to put on a fair bit of speed to outrun the thing. A french schoolkid on a BMX would have been toast. Anway, Race Two = Another victory. Total: Luke/Phil 2, Europe Nil.

Anyway must go. Having been hiding indoors from the sun in Nancy. Now have to actually go and get on with it this afternoon.