Just a wee update – have to confess that this time I’m enjoying going old school and using pen and paper – just not sure I’ll be able to make sense of it when I get home.

Wee visit it to Dover Castle (and the Roman Lighthouse) and South Foreland Lighthouse the day before I got ferry to Calais.

Arrived in Calais and made wee detour to Lighthouse – unfortunately couldn’t go in as it was closed for lunch.

Already much easier cycling and route marked so relaxed and enjoyed the scenery UNTIL an older French cyclist stopped and thought it was ok to flash his tackle at me!

Saw black fluffy baby moorhens and other birds – much nicer viewing.

Took a while and a bit of a detour before I got to a campsite that takes tents – 4th time lucky but got a nice wee spot.

I’m following the Eurovelo 5 Via Francigena (EV5 VF) which will hopefully take me to Italy – at the moment it is a completely different route from the traditional walking plilgramage route but at the Swiss / Italian border the walking and cycling routes will overlap at times and run much more closely together. The EV5 is an ongoing project with gaps where you have to plan the route yourself to join the sections up – the day before yesterday was a lot of make it up as I went along but the last section was nice and came right past a campsite so decided to have a nice early finish.

According to EV5 online map for yesterday I was to head south and then take a dog leg back north to Lille – according to the sign posts I can cut a chunk out and keep going straight along the canal – I took the easier quicker option.

Lots of bird life and got lucky when a kingfisher briefly perched on the fence post next to wear I was sitting. Found a hostel in Lille for the night and abandoned Phil while I went for a wander around the city and treated myself to a fabby huge icecream.

Some of the hostel dormitory doors.

Packed and heading off in the direction of Belgium – unlikely but aiming for Brussels tonight.