Alas all good things must come to an end and with bad weather predicted for the next couple of days the decision was taken to depart a day earlier than originally planned with the benefit of traveling on a Sunday, when the traffic is light and lorries are relatively rare.
Time to wake up, it's been light for some time, pack up bed, brush teeth and wheels turning by 06.00 am. The first part of the journey entails driving 10 miles or so in the wrong direction, toward Sisteron, to get out of the valley. Then a gentle and picturesque drive up the neighbouring valley past Serres, another gliding site favoured by the Germans and Claus Ollmann who takes them all on a low level lead and follow procession round the mountains. Whilst flying in the mountains they can often be seen like a string of geese as they wind their way round the lower slopes several hundred meters below. From here the route winds up to the Col de Croix Haute and thence down into the murk of Grenoble. No point in hurrying this first part and keep your fingers crossed you don't come up behind a dawdling Dutchman in a massive campervan.
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| Passing Grenoble |
Procedure: stop, apply hand brake, wind down passenger window (electric is helpful), unbuckle and lean/clamber over consol and passenger seat making sure you don't knock the car into gear, grab ticket or insert credit card, retrieve and move off, re-buckling and winding up the window simultaneously as you vie for lane domination in the acceleration zone. On entering the toll lane good judgement is required to get your near side close enough to reach the ticket machine without wiping out your wing mirror or near side trailer wheel on the barrier.
Once on the open road the miles (kilometres) pass by pleasantly enough. Here the cruise control is a real boon. The worst of the traffic is round Lyon up to Dijon where the heavy stuff is heading for Paris but once past Dijon we branch out to the East and the relatively new roads are smooth and quiet with very little traffic; especially on a Sunday.
Prior to departure the locals had been warning of storms in the mountains but there was little to show of the bad weather apart from some mist and mild drizzle passing over the Col. Once into the Rhone Valley, I was greated by clear blue skies with a fresh Northerly wind. I hoped this Mistral would portend a change in the air mass for those fortunate enough to be left behind.
As Dijon approached: high, regularly spaced cumulus started to appear and this amazing X-country sky continued almost to Dieppe. This eventually overdeveloped into a grey overcast as the English effect approached
After only fuel and pee stops (I had taken the precaution of preparing French bread baguettes and other nibbles the night before), and using only slightly illegal speeds I arrived at Dieppe 4.30 pm and was assigned for the 17.55 ferry. I had taken the precaution of paying a little extra for a "flexible" ticket. I used the time to revue my traces for the trip and fill out my log book. This usually gets left 'till September when I have forgotten most of it! 35 hours and 1,864 km from 9 flights plus a 15 min check flight with Christian. Not bad for effectively 12 days on site:-)
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| My longest flight - 370km OLC |
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| Back to Blighty |
Now.......we could virtually halve the cost if we had a double trailer and two drivers! -Phil
