Dieppe - Le Coudray St Germer

As we queued for the 11.30pm ferry from Newhaven to Dieppe, a large number of cyclists began to join the line. We spoke to a few and discovered that we were far from the only ones who were planning this trip! There were large groups and individuals all attempting the same thing (though a few were trying to do it all in 24 hours!!) The main difference between us and them was they mostly seemed to have support vans and nice lightweight racing bikes as opposed to my pannier laden mountain bike!
After a four hour ferry crossing we arrived in a rather rainy Dieppe at about 4.30am and soon set off, slotting in behind a group of guys who sped off through the town (and we somehow managed to keep up!) As they stopped for directions we eagerly cycled on towards the Avenue Verte. Along the way we met a guy who had just casually decided the night before to cycle Dieppe to Paris and we had a little chat before he proceeded to fall off his bike. We continued on in the dark and onto the long tarmac strip of the Avenue and into the French countryside.
As the sun began to rise we began to take in the stunning countryside and the quaint little towns that the path intersected. We were soon overtaken by others who had been on the ferry with us including the guy who had fallen off his bike. Then it started to rain and we quickly became soaked and hastily shoved our clothes and tent into plastic bags in a small attempt to keep them dry. The rain and cold soon became too much and we sought shelter in a tiny cafe just off the avenue where a lady (whose breakfast i'm sure we interrupted) provided us with a wonderful hot chocolate to warm us up.
A while later the rain stopped but our problems had not. We came off the cycle path and onto a road and I instinctively cycled onto the left side. Jamie yelled 'RIGHT' at me and I swerved onto some gravel. Somehow I managed to get a puncture from this despite having mountain bike tires and my front wheel was soon completely flat by the time I had reached the top of the road. Although we knew how to repair a puncture (by we I mean Jamie has made one repair before) it would have taken us hours to get the wheel off alone! By some miracle a group of english cyclists came past and saw our evident trouble! Three of them spent the next 20 minutes or so repairing the puncture and we could not be more grateful to them for pretty much saving us from wasting hours trying to do it ourselves!
After a delicious lunch from a patisserie in Forges-Les-Eaux we set off again. The rest of the day pretty much blurred into one increasingly painful haze. The route became increasingly hilly and we really began to tire. Legs ached with every pedal and we literally felt empty and zapped of all energy. As you may imagine there were a few tears! After 14 hours or so since we began cycling we finally arrived at our campsite in Le Coudray St Germer.

Then the rain started...