Day 1 - Stevenage to Le Mans

Hanabal went over some mountains with just a few blokes and some circus elephants for company so i'm told, but although my friends history might not be entirly accurate. It still seems a good starting point for my blog of the first day of the 2008 Timbuktu Challenge. I raise a likeness between my monumental journey and that of Hanibals jaunt through the park because I'm sure he never had to put up with traffic on the M20 or comments from French customs officials.

The day started well, for once it wasn't raining. I was up before the alarm as is customary before I go on holiday and quickly jumped in the shower hoping for a quick getaway, but that can never happen can it. By the time we had walked the dog and packed another TWO bags of last minute stuff we thought we might need (mainly crap) the time was nearly 9am and we were already half an hour behind schedule. Once a tearful goodbye was had with the mother in law (in fairness they were her tears as I was in too much of a rush) we were off. sarah was driving like a good-un on the first leg and TomTom showed us to have a handy 5 minutes to spare before our last check in time. Could it be this easy? Could it hell.... Within 5 miles of the tunnel terminal we came to a grinding halt due to an overturned lorry. We had queued for over half an hour and it was obvious that we were not going to make our planned train. But we were on the move again eventually and arrived at the tunnel around half an hour late. To my amazement the whole process of getting onto a later train was very easy, all you do is drive upto a self service machine and put in your booking number and it asks you if you want to get on the next train. Not many things work this well in England so i'm guessing this must have been designed by the french.

after the fiasco of getting delayed on the M20 we have a bit of luck as we need to get International Driving Licenses for both myself and Sarah. We stroll upto the AA counter with a bundle of paperwork which AA lady duly wades through "thats fine, do you have your photo's". "erm no" we reply and she points us in the direction of a photo booth on the oppositew side of the building, off we go until Sarah exclaims "Hang on, I think I have a passport photo of you in my purse" simultaniously the brainwave hits me that I have one of Sarah lurking at the back of my wallet. Hurrah, we both scuttle back over to the helpfull AA lady who is obviously not as touched by the hopeless sentimentality of it all as we are.

Our train is soon called and off were off to board the train. First of course we must endure a grilling from the customs gistapo. the English side politely ask us what were upto and where were going, when I say were going on a car rally to Timbuktu he gives us a sideways look and it's not until he spots the PDC decals on the car that he understand that were not taking the perverbial out of him. The French side of course are another matter and say "Aw your gooing to Mauritania" ( in the thickest French accent I ever heard, much akin to something from Allo Allo) to which we reply that we are. They seem to find this funny for some reason? Once they finish laughing at us, and than at the car they wish us the best of luck and say "be carefull". The tunnel journey is uneventful and we are soon on the road again. TomTom proves his worth and navigates us through the maze of slip roads until the reach the toll road bound for Bordaux and then Abbville. The roads are empty and with a speed limit of 80, we make good progress into the two hundred odd miles to Le Mans. It truly is a beautiful country, especially in the lovely winter sunshine. One thing that surprises me is the amount of wind turbines there are, it makes you wonder why we don't have more....

Well as I type this on my mobile we are tucked up safe and warm in our hotel room at the Brit hotel. After a hour driving around Le Mans looking for a decent hotel (we heard bad things about Formula 1 hotels) we decide on this one purly on the name. It's clean and tidy and if you've ever stayed at a travelodge, this place is it's twin sister.

well off to bed now. Off to Biarritz tomorrow, only 6 hours worth of driving

*** apologies for poor spelling or punctuation, i'm writing this on a mobile device ***