Rob Ennals > Travel > Simon and Rob Invade and Conquer France

Final Stats

Miles Travelled: Around 650

Total height climbed: 7,775m

Water drunk : 100 litres (70% by Rob)

Yop drunk : 25 litres

Bread eaten : 34 French sticks

Injuries sustained by Rob

  • Toe blistering from walking in cycle shoes that are too small
  • Continuing back sprain
  • Intermittent left knee injury
  • Brief inside of right knee strain
  • Hand pain from "too much vibration"
  • Bruising and grazing down right hand side from crash
  • Left shoulder sprain from "pulling too hard"
  • Fingertip pain from wearing gloves that are too small
  • Genital numbness - this is normal, right?
  • Blistering on left heel
Injuries sustained by Simon

  • Blister on right heel
Problems experienced with Rob's Bike:
  • Loss of rear wheel nut
  • Rear wheel inner tube blow out
  • Spare inner tube had broken valve
  • Rear tyre gash
  • Front brake blocks wore out
  • Rear brake cable snapped
  • Handlebars twisted in crash
  • Pannier rack got caught in rear wheel
  • Display fell off right gear shifter
  • Strange clicking noise from bottom bracket
  • Minor warping of rear wheel
Problems experienced with Simon's bike
  • Chain snapped
  • Pannier rack got caught in rear wheel
Things Simon wished for that immediately appeared
  • Calamity Jane's restaurant and campsite
  • Griffin Vultures
  • The source of the lake noises (Coypu)
  • Campsite with a washing machine
  • Pieces of metal with which to fix Rob's panniers
  • Public toilets (although they were French)
  • Municiple Campsite outside Nimes
  • Picnic tables to have lunch (several times)
  • Place with good Cave paintings
/[Simon tch, just good planning, eh?] /

Observations

    • There are poodles everywhere in France
    • Every region has its own variety of bread, but they are usually just
    • normal French bread in a slightly different shape
    • In the Pyrenees, every valley has its own culture and architecture
    • Brie and Coloumbers taste exactly the same
    • French water isn't that bad after-all
    • All cheese becomes soft cheese when left in a pannier for a day
    • If you don't finish it, the ants will.
    • The French are very bad at signposting
    and not very good with toilets as for signposting toilets...

    /[Simon - the signposts were frequent, but in regional languages. The maps were in French, The result, tricky. Still, as you've heard, we only got lost once...] /

    Things that Rob lost

    • Shower Gel
    • Sun Tan Lotion
    • His funky wrap-around cycling glasses

    Interesting places we considered camping

    • The beach
    • On top of a mountain
    • The grass in the middle of a roundabout
    • In the supermarket
    (avez vous un emplacement pour un petit tent dans votre congelateur)
    • Up a pole