Day 16 - Calais (F) to Swindon (GB)

Sunday 4th June
------------------------

Had a very slow start as the temperature in the tent was so pleasant that I didn't want to get up. Had a shower and ate the rest of my bread / ham / cheese for breakfast.

My planned ferry wasn't until around 8pm and I bought a cheapo 'non-amendable' ticket so figured I'd need to buy a new ticket if I wanted to return early. Getting to the ferry port was interesting as the village I was in decided to close off the road to hold some sort of fete. Only spotted a handful of refugees / migrants now trying to get themselves into the UK from the port. Perhaps it's no longer as appealing economically or with 'The Jungle' levelled and everything fenced-off, there are probably easier places to smuggle yourself in from.

My plan was to check at the ferry port to see how much an early ticket would be and if cheap then I would return early, of not then I'd go explore. The P&O lady was very nice and kindly changed my booking to the next ferry, at no additional cost. Good stuff - cheers P&O! Goodbye Europe.

Met a biker at the port from the Newcastle area. Couldn't understand a word he said. Maybe it's not my poor grasp of French, I may be going deaf due to riding without earplugs for the last few days (my ear canals hurt from wearing the plugs for hours).....

Into Dover and then a quick blast home. Cold here and a few small showers, but glad to be home. Looks like my wife has switched the house around whilst I've been gone and she has binned my favourite sofa......

Happy to be home, but sad not to be waking-up in a new place everyday. I like the nomadic life - I'm sure that I have a trip or two left in me before I hang-up my boots. Going to work tomorrow sure will be a shock.

The Tenere has been an amazingly reliable bike. In the 40k miles I have put on it, it has never really let me down (Puncture, Bulbs and one dodgy broken chain excepted). I am quite fond of it, but will be selling it soon as I'm going back to normal road bikes for a bit. Will be sad to see it go - we had some good times together, but my future trips may be shorter and involve more 'conventional' roads so I see little need for a real 'adventure bike' right now.

Cheers or Живели (Živeli) as they say in Serbia.

Mileage: 4111
Country count: 14 (GB, F, D, A, SLO, HR, BiH, MNE, AL, MK, RKS, SRB, FL, CH)
Beers: 42 + 0.5l of red + Blueberry Schnapps + 3 Raki + 4 Pokojnice shots + 1 bottle of Croatian home-made white + 1 bottle of cheap French white.
Fines: 0
Bribes: 0 (but 1 passport switching scam)
Ass pain: 2/10
Mechanical issues: 1 (headlight bulb & fuse)
Accidents: 1 (witnessed) + 1 guy reversing into me + 1 crash in Kosovo petrol station
Coldness: 3/10

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