What a change in the weather!

Wowzers! The wind blew furiously last night and the rain was torrential. Needless to say I got very little sleep being a nervous wreck about my broken tent pole surviving this onslaught. But it did, thank goodness! And not a drop of water in the tent, luckily. Phew! I've never seen my tent flex, bend, flap and go as crazy as it did last night.

The winds are ferocious today and dangerous for cycling. I considered my options. Firstly, I could stay put for another day & cycle to Calais on Sunday in the hope it would improve. Secondly, I could give it a go and cycle 2 very short days to Calais if the going was really tough. Thirdly, I could get the train to Calais. I asked about the weather at the campsite. He said it would be like this today and tomorrow. The irony - beautiful all week and then diabolical for the weekend. It happens in France as well as the UK!

So, I decided to give it a go, of course. And, can you believe it...I should have realised...the weather had changed...so the wind direction had changed...which meant my persistent daily headwind....had become the most extraordinary tailwind I've EVER experienced! Incredible! How lucky was I?!

I literally flew to Calais! I had significant shoves up the hills from the wind. I took the coast road which was really beautiful, even in the awful weather. There wasn't much traffic, that's all on the autoroute (motorway) not too far away. And I don't think many were out sightseeing today!

On one downhill, I achieved nearly 46mph!! Such was the strength of the wind.

I didn't stop (other than to eat my pain au choc) and here I am now in an exceptionally wet & windy Calais. I literally end the tour as I started - cold and wet!

Trying to get the tent up was ridiculous. I had 2 panniers holding it down whilst I tried to get the pegs into my pitch, which can only be described as godawful waste ground, and even then, the tent was tearing away trying to achieve flight. I've not had the misfortune to try putting a tent up in such wildly windy conditions before.

It's up now & I hope the tent pegs & broken pole hold.

So I'm about to go and celebrate with a chocolate crepe around the corner. This is assuming they are still open!

I'll blog further tonight.

Toodle-oo for now!

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone on O2