Rando Rail, France

Wednesday morning seemed less wet and miserable than the previous day which was a relief.

We enjoyed our breakfast at the Beefeater and loaded up the car to get on our way.

We boarded the ferry fairly quickly and went to find ourselves a base in the family lounge area at the front of the boat. 

We had a huge window to look out and it was lovely to sit and relax with a book while the boys played together in the play area.

The crossing was fairly quick, only an hour and a half to Calais so we were soon disembarking and driving towards Nielles-les-Blequin where David had booked for us to go Rando-Railing.

We enjoyed our picnic lunch while waiting for our booked slot.  The Rando rail is basically a 5km course of disused railway on which you pedal a four-seater bike chair contraption. 

Unfortunately we could only book the downhill first start which meant we had a wonderful long and fast ride down ride in slight drizzle and then after turning the bike on the turntable we had a long uphill climb back to the start in much heavier rain. 

We had to stop several times to cross roads and lift barriers but it was a lovely and unique way to spend a couple of hours riding through the French countryside.

Seb, David and I alternated so that there were always two of us pedalling while Nat cuddled up to the other person on the seat in the middle and sheltered under the protection of the umbrella (now somewhat bent after my dive into the maze hedge the previous day).

Again it probably would have been even more lovely had it been a warm and sunny day but we still had great fun and really enjoyed ourselves.

On the way back to the ferry we had planned to stop at some lakes to do a little boating but because of the rain the boats and rides were all closed.  we had a quick walk around some of the lakes and then jumped back in the car to head back to Calais.

In fact it was a good job that everything had been closed as there was a diversion on the way back and a lot of traffic so we only made it back onto the ferry by the skin of our teeth.

We found ourselves a nice comfy sofa in the family lounge and Nat and Sebastian watched Ice Age 4 on the big screen while David stretched out for a little snooze and I read another book.

We docked back in England about 7.45pm and stopped for chips from a fish and chip shop in Dover before commencing the two hour drive back home.  A long and tiring day but good fun.  Lots of sorting out to do now though.