Lille

After a interesting couple of days, we have successfully arrived in Lille for our first rest day.

Day one had some highs and lows. High in that we made it to France, low in that we had some difficulties. Duncan almost missed the train to Dover, smashing in an old lady in the process of boarding - then IGNORING her injuries. We then missed the stop for the connecting train so had to backtrack. Finally, we spent so long stuffing KFC into our eager mouths that we missed the final boarding for the ferry. Duncan's smooth chat managed to get us aboard.

So far so good.

Driven by our target of Saint-Omer for the night, we gleefully cycled past five campsites. In Saint-Omer there were none, so like true heroes we pressed on to find some wild camping. This proved trickier than expected, and following a turn-down from a feral farmer we kipped under a bridge on an old railway line just as it was turning dark at about 8:30.

Then it got cold, so cold that we probably burnt more calories shivering in our sleeping bags (you'll see a photo later about how hilariously thin they are) than we did cycling there. The fact that we'd had no food probably didn't help matters.

Woken by glorious sunshine and truck noise from the overhead bridge, the next day was a lot better. Lessons learnt and tonight we are camping properly. One last thing, the Brooks are breaking us in, not the other way around.