Mauvais Calais

I am into night two in Calais. This has been a quite frustrating, stressful, and unintentional stop on my trip. But, before I get to that. The last time I wrote was only a couple days ago as I was leaving Luton. Riding from Luton to Dover went relatively well! Had my first night of wild-camping about 300m from a real campsite north-west of Maidstone in the UK. It went pretty smoothly - nothing overly exciting (I hope the rest of my wild-camping follows the trend). On Tuesday I continued south-east towards Dover. I managed to find a nice campground 12km north of Dover to stay at. After setting up camp and having a bite to eat, I wandered into a nearby town for a beer. I sat there reading through Harry Potter for an hour or two before heading back to the campground just as the rain started to come down. The rain on its own isn’t all that bad, what was bad was the fact that the wind was howling across the field at my entirely unprotected tent. After a number of restless hours I put my rain gear on and dragged my tent around a large bush to get some reprieve from the wind. Probably one of the worst sleeps I have ever had. Following that I stayed at the campground one more night, I figured it would be better to take on the beginning stages of France with a good night’s rest. Wednesday I loaded up my things and cycled to the ferry. I was gearing up for what I had hoped to be an uneventful cycle towards Vimy Ridge. Unfortunately, fate had other plans. The rag that I had used to clean up my chain after a bit of rain I had on Monday evening found its way into my drivetrain when I was 7 kilometers outside of Calais. The rag jammed my derailleur, snapped it off and sent it into my wheel. My derailleur, now in two parts, rather than one, had to be taped to the frame so I could push my way back into Calais, where I saw a campground on a map, and I figured I would have the best luck finding repairs the next day, as it was shortly after 6 when I broke down. After pushing the bike all the way back to the Port (where I had seen a campground on my map) I was met with the sight of an open excavation site. I sat and ate my sandwich and an apple by the beach and went through all my options. I was ready to throw in to towel and go to a hotel for the night, then try to make repairs the next morning when I saw another sign for a campground. I followed it to a nearly-deserted caravan site. There wasn’t anyone at the office (I am learning quickly that the French adhere to their 6pm closing times religiously) I made my way in anyways, and tried to asses the damage to the bike. Noticing menacing clouds coming in off the water I set up my tent, then had a gentleman approach me. He was the caretaker/owner and he wasn’t too happy that I had gone right in to make myself at home. He told me I should have called - to which I told him that I was Canadian and had no working phone. For a second I thought he was going to toss me out when he asked me to come with him, fortunately he had some others who had called, or in the very least booked ahead of time, that needed to check in and pay as well. This morning I went in search of a bike shop. I found a little place only a kilometer or two away. It turned out to be a pretty small-town, we-recycle-everything kinda place. One of the guys there helped me to bend back the derailleur hanger and found parts to replace my broken ones. Though, he didn’t really have the parts I needed. He sold me a little shimano derailleur which didn’t have the reach to get over my 34t chainring, so when I used it it the cog would rest on the chain where the derailleur would feed out - if that makes sense. Secondly, he apparently didn’t have an 8 spd chain, so he sold me a 6/7spd chain. He didn’t really put it together properly, because the two kilometer ride back to the campground consisted of me pedaling three strokes before the stiff link in the chain skipped through the drivetrain and jolted the pedals. Fortunately, I kinda know what I am doing. I managed to salvage my old chain - even though I had lost a pin (thank goodness for the foresight of purchasing a spare quick link!). Upon comparison to the ‘new’ chain, it was at least 3 links too long (as it was installed) and possibly too thin? I could be wrong on that. In the afternoon I needed to run out to find some more gas for my stove - just to have a back-up. The store I found had bike parts as well! I ended up getting a house-brand derailleur that was much more similar to the shimano altus that I had on there previously. I came back to the campground to put the new part on - didn’t quite go as smoothly as I had hoped but it is done now. I did test the derailleur to make sure it shouldn't fail on me. That said, I should probably replace the cables for the rear derailleur - I would feel a little stupid going back to the same shop, after ditching both of the things they sold me to fix the bike... Maybe I'll find another on the way to Dieppe/Paris.  Tomorrow the plan is to head towards Dieppe. I think I am going to scrap Vimy and possibly go another time. It is supposed to rain for the next three days straight. Go figure I waste a perfectly sunny day running around in Calais. Oh well. Best, Gavyn.