Home safe and well!

This is clearly not a photo of them arriving back at St Joseph's on Monday evening but somewhere else(?) along the route.  While we wait for the remainder of the photos and their daily journals I did manage to extract this from Mike Burton:


EPILOGUE
I understand some of our (ahem!) 'well-wishers' have been having side bets on our fortunes   - OR OTHERWISE(!) Well to put you straight here are the final scores:

DISTANCE TRAVELLED:
Father Michael: 1013 miles.   In view of his cracked ribs Father Michael wisely took the van from two of the late-afternoon food/water top-ups, meaning 15 miles less riding on each occasion.

Mick Claridge and Mike Burton: 1043 miles.

Mike Carney: 998 miles. Just one small cheeky van ride to avoid riding in the dark, fair enough. And of course his 38 mile taxi ride from Aosta, the cost of which would make another good side bet!

BIKEMANSHIP:
Father Michael: Had a dramatic crash and cracked his ribs, unfortunately the conditions were wet and littered with pot-holes.
 
Mick Claridge:  The only Mike not to fall off,  in spite of riding backwards (see earlier photo).   I did however witness a dramatic speedway-style slide whilst he braked to avoid the van he was following on a wet downhill section.   I was just close enough to smell the adrenaline (pheew!) and extract a confession that it was “in anger” and not done deliberately for dramatic effect.

Mike Burton:  Had a clean record until day 18 and simply couldn’t resist jumping up a pavement, while being over-kind to the oncoming traffic (after all they were going the CORRECT way down a one-way street!) He needs to learn from his son how to do this without taking a pavement biriani!  Luckily the pavement was smooth so no grazing was incurred.

Mike Carney:  Managed five falls, including one as he climbed onto the bike and hadn’t even started riding.  We think he has learned from his nasty experience of tram tracks in Montreul, as he was very cautious when we encountered them again in Rome.  His best performance was head-butting a car, but luckily it was unoccupied so there were no financial implications!  Of course we wish his shoulder a speedy recovery.

PUNCTURES:
Mick Claridge:  Four punctures. This is disgraceful as Mick is the only professional mechanic among us. Best stick to restoration and body work Mick, and please don’t get a job at Kwik Fit!

Father Michael: Two punctures. Could have been more, he gave his tyres such a hard time that the rear one de-laminated, so need to bring more spares next time!

Mike Carney: Nil!  Those gravel tyres he imported from Germany were well worth it, and cost 10% less than they would now due to those who voted while we were out of the country, very astute!

Mike Burton: Nil!  Credit to tyres borrowed from a friend and a trusty Giant XC Team bike that has survived many years of punishment by two owners who are far from careful.

Mike Burton

Our Pilgrims have arrived in Rome!

Photos taken this evening in St Peter's Square, as daylight was beginning to fade.

Internet connection still very challenging, so hopefully more updates and photos to follow soon.

Ros Burton

All is well!

Our Pilgrims reached the medieval walled town of Lucca yesterday and are in good spirits and robust health.  Unfortunately they still have no internet connection so updates are delayed. 

I hope to have some news for you soon!

Ros Burton 

Day 9 (update from Malcolm)

It has been a wet day and the troupe has had it easy going down hill approx 888 metres and then up a slight incline of about 1,000 metres !  They enjoy it really.  Malcolm and Denese searched high and low for a lauderette.  The smell has proved too much of wet socks and damp shoes.  We found one - only to find it would be done overnight, so now have to collect the smelly laundry tomorrow.  See we are having it difficult too !!

They were held up a little by Mr Poser 2016 Mike Claridge.

Fr Michael wishes everyone to know that he has a fine physic and not just "an arse to die for" !!

Tomorrow - Italy - after cycling over a small 'hill' called the San Bernadino Pass (2,066 metres) !!

Malcolm Johnstone

Day 9,10,11 and 12 (update from Mike Burton)

Monday 13th June
Aigle to Martigny
Our original plan was to ride from Aigle to Martigny, but on closer inspection we realised that this was quite a short easy ride whereas the following day’s ride was a gruelling 63 miles with 3,200 metres of climbing (imagine cycling up Chalfont Heights 400 times in a day).  So we decided to tack the first part of tomorrow's journey onto the end of today, taking us to Orsiers.   This would normally mean the van driving ahead to pick us up after the ride and drive us back to the hotel, but in this instance the lie of the land that we could coast back along the albeit busy main road. 

We did a recce beforehand and found that this Swiss equivalent of our A roads has a very good surface and a dedicated cycle lane for most of the way.   Not needing the van was great for Malcolm and Denese as it saved them time, it also saved us squeezing bikes, luggage and riders all into the van which is a very tight. 

We were due to drive the 12 miles from our hotel at Leysin to the start point at Aigle, but discovered that this was all downhill so we were treated to a run of exhilarating hairpins. By the time we had descended through the cloud the temperature had gone from 10C to 20C and it was dry again, so safe to move my phone out of its waterproof bag in my backpack into pocket for easy access and plenty of pictures on the go.

Tuesday 14th June 
Orsiers in Switzerland to Aosta in Italy
Via the Grand St Bernard Pass
We drove to Orsiers, where we had left off at the end of the previous day, for one of the highlights of the journey, crossing the Grand St Bernard Pass from Switzerland into Italy! 

The official Via Francigena route includes a lot of mountain tracks which are very difficult even on foot let alone a bike, so we used what small roads are available.  These led us to the base of a huge dam, which we were soon looking down on.  Then we had to take the road tunnel for about a mile, being the only way to cover that part.  We were prepared, fitting our bright flashing front and rear lights.  There is no cycle lane in the tunnel, only a white line right next to the Armco.  We listened carefully for lorries and stopped to let them by as there wasn’t much room to spare, not particularly pleasant!

Leaving the tunnel we emerged into a bit of a no-mans land, the only feature being a disused ski cafe where Malcolm and Denise met us with our lunch.  Then we started grinding up the steady 5-10% incline, looking up at the snow line trying to see where the top was but it just seemed to go on forever.  A few hours later and we were looking down at the snow, with only a few ledges of the snaking road winding above us.
 

 
Finally after 1,600m of climbing (20 times as high as Chalfont heights!) we arrived at the summit - to be rewarded with a well earned beer and some spectacular views.  We also met our first fellow pilgrim, Tim from South London, who is walking to Rome carrying all his belongings for the journey. 
 

We visit the beautiful chapel and rest a while before being treated to the most amazing descent.  Mick Claridge and I relish the now dry hairpins as we pass a few cars on the way down (its quite safe as we have much more room being a lot narrower).  We notice our exit just in time, to avoid the motorway tunnel and take some small alpine roads and tracks through picturesque Italian villages.  The ride into Aosta is similar, with only a few wrong turns and some interesting detours to find our way back onto the route. 
  

 
Finding the hotel was easy - now that I know how to tell the Garmin about one-way streets, it removes a lot of trial and error and took us straight there. We arrive just after Malcolm and Denise and enjoy the 'recovery' drink that they have prepared for us, then a delicious pasta meal in the town, our first meal in Italy.


Wednesday 15th June
Aosta to Quincinetto

Today’s route was originally intended to take us all the way to Bollengo but was too arduous, with tomorrow's route being too easy so we evened them out by ending at Quincinetto.

As we get nearer to Rome the Via Francigena becomes more popular and well marked so we don’t need to keep such a close eye on the Garmin’s little red line, a blessed relief for the navigator, and a lot less 'wrong turn' frustration for everyone else!

 

Today was also the first day that the team got split up.  It had to happen at some stage and we did very well to avoid it for as long as we have.  It can be difficult to keep up in town traffic, and without phone contact it is impossible to know what has gone wrong.  So shortly after leaving the hotel Mike Carney (aka Captain Carnage) missed a roundabout exit and the rest of us couldn’t find him in spite of a long search.  Our best guess was that he had carried on solo, so we phoned the van to keep an eye open for him.  We also kept lookout ourselves from our route high up the side of the valley, thinking of all possible scenarios whilst hoping for the best.  When we got to our end-point of Quincinetto the van went back to look along the road for him, while we waited at a Gelato bar.  

After two hours, to our huge relief, he arrived intact in a taxi and we were all very glad to be re-united.

From Quincinetto we drove an hour east to the amazing Santurio Oropa for the night.  It is a sanctuary dedicated to the Virgin Mary, founded in 400 AD.  As well as its basilica, chapels and meeting rooms it has room to accommodate 300 guests, and twelve separate restaurants to feed them.



 

 

Thursday 16th June
 
Spent some time looking around the Santuario Oropa then rode to Vercelli.   A fairly unpleasant rainy ride which took Fr Michael through a puddle which turned out to be a pothole.  This wrenched his front tyre off sending him crashing to the tarmac.  Luckily the Irish guys are "flippin' tough" (Fr Michael's words) and after a few strong words and a bit of tic for his bike we were on the way again.

Mike Burton

Dear Readers

I hope you are enjoying the pilgrim's stories so far.  As you may know internet access has been a problem for them so updates have been like London buses - nothing for ages and then lots at once.   On Sunday they sent eight updates (from Malcolm) and a further two (from Mike Burton)!  What this means is you are now reading their stories in reverse order with the most recent one first! 

If you wish to start reading

•  from the beginning of their journey, then click here and this will take you to Sunday 5th June when they left Canterbury.  Alternatively, you can click on the menu bar above called 'And They're Off!'
•  from their latest set of installments, then click here which will take you to Day 4. 

Thank you for your patience.

Ros Burton

Day 7, again

 
These photos of Lake Geneva were taken late Saturday, the last two hours of our 9.5 hour day where we started in Pontarlier France, up the Jura Alps to St Croix and very cold. 

We saw what we thought was a bus shelter which turned out to be a bin locker.  It was so cold and wet that we sheltered there anyway!!  As we descended from St Croix the heavens opened to monsoon proportions and it got even colder. Gravity didn’t help, as we were just coasting without the warmth of the up-hill pedaling, the wind chill effect was severe, so severe that I even took to pedaling while putting on the brakes to avoid going too fast (35 is plenty on these wet roads - slowing down for hairpins of course).

Then as we headed South towards Lausanne the weather got kinder, and by the time we traversed the beautiful vineyards of Lake Geneva it was sunburn time again.
We decided to push on past our 5pm top-up stop as the conditions were so nice, an 8:30pm finish and no massage was bearable given that the following day is Sunday and a rest day.

Mike Burton

Cliff edge of Jura Alps near St Croix.

Day 7 and 8

Having arrived at the Hotel on top of the mountain in Leysin, Fr Michael, Mike Burton and Malcolm decided to go for a meal at 10.30pm but only one restaurant was open (as they close down tomorrow for the end of the Winter season and before opening for the summer trade).

Having said there was no food left and our pleading for something (they liked the Irish lilt) eventually offered us two plates of chips and 12 chicken wings.

*     *     *     *     *

Today is Sunday and a rest day so we had breakfast together. At midday Fr Michael said Mass on the balcony with the birds singing and the lovely peace.  It was memorable and when we we sang the Our Father, a cow decided to ring its bell !!

Afterwards we cleared out the van and maintained the bikes - in the rain, and some went for a swim or sauna. 


 

We had to wash our smalls so we strung a line across all our balconies.  Some people have no shame !  We sat down at 7pm for an excellent meal together.

Whilst Fr Michael, Mike Carney and Malcolm were in the Jacuzzi we noticed that Mike Carney had a 'love bite' on his shoulder.  He says it is the damage from the cross bar when he collided with the car but . . .  it is always the quiet ones!

Malcolm Johnstone