A Change in the Weather

The last few days have gone by in a blur of travel and sleep. We said our goodbyes to the continent with a final early morning walk along a windswept beach at Boulogne.

It turns out that Boulogne is actually a pretty cool town with an incredible cathedral within an old walled city. Timings worked out well enough for us to enjoy an evening walk around the old city.

As always, Clare had done some research and we arrived at the source of the best pizzas in town. They clearly hadn't invested much in their advertising and signage over the years, but to be fair, they knew how to cook up a great pizza and the reviews were spot on. We ate it sitting on the top of the old city walls underneath the towering basilica as the sun set.

Before travelling through the tunnel, we stretched our legs along the deserted beach front in the quiet of the early morning.

This artwork was painted on the end of the houses above the beach. It seemed like a fitting end point to the expedition. It was time to drive....

With the car laiden with bikes and supplies, we set off back for the UK.

The drive went pretty well until we reached Wales. We were only fifteen mintues from The Cottage, when the full force of Storm Francis became apparent. The A55 was completley flooded. We were able to make it though, but soon after we heard on the news that the road had been closed.

The final section of duel carrage way was reduced to one lane - you could have kayaked in the other.

Things got much worse as we neared The Cottage. The Ogwen river had burst it's banks in several places. The A5 was already closed. A friend of mine took this photo of up near Ogwen Cottage and you can see why! As well as incredible rains, a landslide had come down from the mountainside above the road. We detoured up the hill, thinking that it would be better higher up, but it was far worse. Water was pouring off the hillsides with force and the two roads though the village were already knee deep in water. The fire brigade were evacuating houses and a police man told us that we couldn't reach our hill the way we were going. There was one more route to try, before, we would have to abandon the car and set out on foot. Thankfully, we descended with the flowing water, but at the bottom of the hill, where the water was pouring left, into a lake where there should have been a road, we turned right and stayed above the waters. Thankfully, The Cottage remained water tight. The rain guage, having been emptied only a few days ago was full at 12cm and it seems that it filled with in a 12 hour period. 

We were very relieved to get inside and very lucky. We were soon asleep, and woke only during the following eleven hours when we heard the helicopter hovering nearby. We later found out that it was evacuating further properties. In the morning, the sun was back out and the waters had begun to receed. Cycle touring in the sunshine of France seemed a long way away...