23rd September (rain, drizzle, cloudy, cool, windy) 18 km

It’s weird the things you happen across in campgrounds.  This campground not only didn’t supply toilet paper, lights in the toilet are apparently also considered a frivolous non-essential.  However, they make up for it by having a campground light thoughtfully positioned right outside our tent.  You don’t notice these things when you set your tent up in daylight but you sure notice them at night.

So woke this morning at 8am after an interrupted sleep just with people talking and walking past the site, our pitch being on the back boundary. The wind was still blowing and it seemed like another opportunity to get some washing done and hung out to dry, providing it didn’t blow away. Forgot to mention in yesterday’s blog that the best thing about the ride was drying off my undies and socks on the bike. For the afternoon yesterday my socks dangled from my handgrips and my undies danced gaily in the wind from my handlebars. It did arouse the interest of many a passer-by, in cars and on foot. I will be patenting the idea when I return to NZ as a fitness/drying aid for travellers.

After a cuppa, I aired our sleeping bags and inner liners, whilst Julia washed some of her gear. We’ve been keeping up to date with washing, but tonight we’ll put a load of clean gear in the dryers, just because after sitting in the dry bags during a trip of this length, it becomes damp and sticky. At present we have been given the use of the French couple’s line next to us, to dry our wet clothes and I am using a vacant holiday home’s balcony for the airing of the other stuff.

Phil and Elizabeth are off into the town to check shops opening hours and then they are off for a ride around some of the island. They took off at 1.30pm, but it still looked dodgy with spits of rain, although as I write this an hour later, it’s still not amounted to anything. As we were blogging on the bench by reception, we met a couple from Monmouthshire with their dog Percy. He was beautiful, an Italian Spifaldi (Toff, you can correct me on that one). Heather and Glynn are touring in their van and mentioned a couple of towns further up the coast were really lovely.

We had mackerel and tomato for lunch, something we haven’t had for a while, so that will become a different choice of food, as we’re both eating camembert by the truckload. I can literally feel my arteries closing up. Bought Julia a bottle of red Bordeaux wine today to have with our main meal tonight….yes, it’s Chilli Con Carne tonight…perfect with a red wine. I’m very much into this Dutch beer, 8.6. Trying a different type of that brand tonight. The local brassieres charge an arm and a leg for the stuff you can pick up off the shelf for a fraction of the price and that way we can drink it anywhere we like…plus I’m a tight git and don’t like getting ripped off.

Forecast for tomorrow is for fine weather, but more importantly, a tail wind to speed us on our way down the coast.  

After lunch, we decided to go and visit La Flotte and Saint Martin, further up the coast of the island.  The rain looked like it could chuck it down any minute or just stay looking oppressive for the rest of the day.  Of course as soon as we took off from camp, leaving our washing out, it started to hose down.  

Yahoo it's stopped raining!!!

We took shelter behind some trees for ten minutes and when it had eased off, visited an old fort and an abbey ruin.  Then we cycled into La Flotte which was a very beautiful seaside town and the moody sky just added to the atmosphere.

It started to rain again so we took shelter by the tourism office where we got into a conversation with a French woman.  We told her we couldn’t speak much French but that just made her speak faster, almost as if she thought if she spoke more, we’d probably understand more.  Well we didn’t but we just smiled and nodded until the rain stopped and then with an “Au revoir”, cycled to St Martin.

We’re really glad we came out for a bike ride this afternoon because St Martin was also beautiful, despite the weather.  After looking around this lovely old town, we saw yet another set of dark clouds heading our way so hightailed it back to Rivedaux where we are staying.  We had a tailwind, so we made excellent progress and Phillip and Elizabeth had just got back before us.  They had to spend much of their afternoon sheltering from the rain as well.

Cycling into La Flotte - beautiful colours

La Flotte

Another old fort at Saint Martin - the colour of the water looked so inviting but only about 17C today

Saint Martin was a beautiful and affluent little town

We all gathered in the common room to have our dinner together and a few pre-dinner drinks as well.  Our washing was too damp to try and do anything with so we left it out on our neighbours line (she invited us to use it) and hope the wind will dry it out overnight as it is about as ferocious now as it was last night.  Unlike last night however, it is forecast to drop to just 8C tonight whereas last night was very warm.  We put a load of almost dry clothes and stuff that generally just needed airing out, into the camp dryer while we blogged and did dishes.  Then folded our stuff and off to bed.

22nd September (cloudy, windy,.cool) 79 km

With good wifi connection at this camp, first priority this morning was getting the wages done so I got stuck into that while Pete ran around getting the breakfast things ready and tidying up the tent.  The wifi connection seemed a lot slower this morning so that was a bit frustrating but eventually got the job done and were on the road about 9.30am.

The plan today was to ride for the city of La Rochelle and perhaps go to the island off the coast there called Ile de Re.  Elizabeth knew a bit about the area having been here before and was keen to get to the island, but it was 70 km to La Rochelle and knowing how adept we are at picking up extra kms, I was wary of committing to the island.

Stopping in the market of La Tranche Sur Mer

Started off with a leisurely walk with the bikes through the market of La Tranche Sur Mer, where we all picked up some treats from the patisserie before beginning the search for the cycle path out of town.  We instinctively headed for the beach and after a bit of searching, found the track and at last we were off.  Pete, Elizabeth and myself were all cruising and talking and shortly into the ride, we realised we’d lost Phil.  We didn’t know if he was ahead of us or behind us so I cycled further up the track to see if I could see him around the corner, but no.  Pete cruised up to me and said Elizabeth had gone back to look for him and seeing as we all had phones, we knew we would catch up eventually. 

So Pete and I cruised along the beachside towns, enjoying the relaxed vibe and stopping a couple of times to pick up fruit and bread.  At L’Aguillion-Sur-Mer we met up with Phil and Elizabeth at the Super U supermarket where we all stocked up and then went for lunch at some nearby picnic tables.

Bleak and windy 

The wind this morning had been a pleasant breeze, but from this point on it graduated through all the stages to eventually become a howling nightmare.  Our path took us over vast flatlands on the edge of the Atlantic with no protection from this building force and this afternoon’s ride was not pleasant at all.  To add to this, some of the paths were pretty bumpy and I felt for Phil and Liz on their skinnier tyres.

Pete and Elizabeth

Still managing to smile at this stage

A cool but very bleak looking old church from the 12th century where we stopped for afternoon tea

Phil and the fishermen do their best to avoid looking at the legless beggarwoman at the end of the bridge.....
(she was actually just another exhausted cyclist who had her legs ground down to nubs from battling the wind)

The only point of interest along this stretch was the mussel fishermen who were out in force, fishing from the murky depths with big nets on winches.  Otherwise, it was just a slog and we were grateful at last to pull into a town with a Super U supermarket and a campground, just north of La Rochelle at 5.30pm.  After stocking up, we pulled into the campground and I was so knackered I didn’t even check the tariff board outside.  Phil and Liz did though and said they were going on to the island. 

Pete with undies fluttering off handlebars.

So we said goodbye and I went into the office, where she told me to go pick a site and then come back and pay…..25 euros!!  The most we’ve paid the whole trip is 16 for just two of us.  I checked MapsMe and it said there was a municipal camp 2.3 km away, so we cycled to that.  However, it didn’t even exist anymore and was just an empty field.  Checked one other and that was closed and it was now 6.30pm. 

So decided to go back to the expensive camp but when we went to choose our 25 euro site, it was all rocks!  I kid you not – I should have taken a photograph but by now was so dispirited at having had the tantalising thought of finishing for the day, getting showered and enjoying the ice cold shandy in my panniers snatched away from me, that it was all I could do to climb back on my bike and get out of there.  Even wanting to stop so badly, I could not bring myself to pay such an exhorbitant amount of money for the worst site we’d seen.

Had to admit, it was a good idea!

So we messaged Phil and Liz who had just got to the island and were at an open campground and told them we were on our way.  We resolved to ourselves to check out any campgrounds on the way but there weren’t any.  We only had a short ride through town, enjoying the brief reprieve from the wind that the buildings gave us and all too soon we were back out in it again.  Not a tree or piece of greenery could be seen, just a vast empty wasteland stretching out before us and it was hard to believe there was a bridge and an island out there somewhere.  We rounded a small hill and there was the bridge rising up over the ocean in a 4km long arc.  We knew this would be a battle as the wind was right in our faces and now we had to climb up the hill of the bridge as well, totally exposed with no protection.  We were glad our bikes were as heavy as they were so we wouldn’t get blown off it.

We looked forward to reaching the top so we could enjoy the downhill, but it never seemed to come.  The wind was so strong, we just had to pedal hard the whole way.  Thankfully Phil and Liz had done the hard work of finding an open campsite and we knew this effort would be rewarded with a rest at the end.  Gratefully pulled into camp about 7.30pm where as soon as we got the tent up, I went for a shower but was really too tired to eat.  Managed to drink that longed-for shandy and had a bit of bread and cheese and then just gratefully fell into bed.  When we’d been at that first camp, I was utterly exhausted and we’d done 61km – by the time we got to the island, we’d done 79km. 

Pete here; The wind today really ruined the ride. Like Julia mentioned, it was blowing straight off the Atlantic which was fine with the morning breeze, but terrible with the gusting gale during the entire afternoon and evening. By the time we had to cross the bridge to the island (and it is some bridge… although we didn’t get a shot last night, as we were too scared to get the camera out in case it blew out of our hands)  Julia was very tired. I was concerned about her as she’d complained a couple of times earlier in the afternoon of diaphragm pain and couldn’t catch her breath. Anyone who knows Julia, also knows that she never complains, so it probably didn’t help with me telling her I didn’t think we should pay 25 euros for a rocky outcrop and should push on to the island. I have to admit, the ride to the bridge and then over it was horrific. It’s 3kms up the La Rochelle side and 1km down to the island. Part way up I’m yelling over my shoulder, as she’s tucked in behind me trying to get some protection…”Don’t worry hon, nearly there, soon at the top “ No reply from behind…..until this barrage of abuse comes hurtling from behind. I got that much of a shock, I nearly rammed into the side rails.

At the top I yelled back….”Yay, all cruisy now hon,“ not taking into account the force nine gale we were pedalling into, that was preventing any downhill movement without us pedalling as hard as we could. It was a huge relief to reach the campground and get out of that wind - I also fell into bed after a brief dinner.  It was probably only about 9pm.

21st September (morning drizzle, cloudy, mild) 61 km

Dreamed about mum last night for the first time since she died. It was only for a moment when she appeared at a door. I opened it and exclaimed “Mum “and as I did, she was gone. I didn’t even get to give her a hug.

It rained during the final few hours of the night and we woke to a lot of water, thankfully, mostly outside although we did have a small puddle on the groundsheet in the vestibule, which was no problem. As Julia said when we woke “It would have to rain when we reach the coast.” The forecast I believe is for bad weather this morning and the clouds are dark grey and full, but then fine for the coming week, so if that’s the case, it’ll be alright. Made a couple of adjustments to the tent just in case we decide to stay another night here. It would annoy me to do that, as the town of Les Sables d’Olonne, is nice and the beach is gorgeous, but the camp is expensive and I didn’t like the owners attitude when we checked in.

Julia went to make a coffee after her shower this morning and the gas has run out, so that means a 5 km trip back into town to a Decathlon store, or no gas for a couple of days. We’ll do it because those cups of tea and coffee really revive you and can kick start your day.

Noticed yesterday that sleeping bags need a good airing as well as the inner liners, otherwise they start to get that damp, yuk feeling. No wifi at this bloody camp either, unless you pay 5 euros an hour….oh yeah… that ain’t happening. If necessary we’ll hit a Mc Donalds for a couple of hours, but it will be interesting to see what power and internet are like in Spain and Portugal. A couple of people we’ve spoken to reckon that there aren’t too many campsites and at this time of year, even fewer. Picked up a brochure at Tourist Info yesterday on camps around here and the ones that haven’t closed, will be by the end of the month.

At 9.30am we left for Decathlon, telling Elizabeth and Phil that hopefully we would hook up during the day. It was a bit of a mission getting to the store, but they had what we needed and we purchased two canisters and a couple of towels, as ours are getting a bit smelly after the last few weeks. Then it was off to find a Mc Donalds for wifi.  Found a lovely quiet one and went in and ordered coffee and food. About a half hour later the lunchtime school rush appeared and the place was packed. We’d hoped for good connection but it was rubbish and by now we’d still heard nothing from Dad and I was getting concerned.

Goodbye Les Sables d'Olonne

Typical house of the area

Left there no better off and none the wiser on the father front. Down to the front where we enjoyed wonderful cycling under cloudy skies, perfect for riding, heading for Talmont St Hiliare. Beautiful scenery again and fantastic surface on road or cycle track. At Jard sur Mer we stopped for lunch and sat watching surfers and a body boarder cut up the waves on offer. The wind which had begun as a light breeze, was now blowing strongly and it was good to begin again, with a tail wind.

A lovely run round the coast with well marked cycle path

This boogieboarder was having a blast

A detour for a toilet found us at another gorgeous beach where there were more surfers and stand up paddle boarders, before we headed off through some lovely forest rides heading for our destination of Tranche sur Mer. We had heard from Elizabeth and Phil that they were at a Super U intermarche there and would let us know what campsite they were at.

The riding was still awesome and we too pulled into the same supermarket some time later. Whilst Julia went in to get supplies, I dry lubed the bikes as they were getting a bit creaky with the dry sand riding.

Lunchtime outlook

Elizabeth at our campground for the night - this was a really good one although you can see, grass is in short supply.

All stocked up and not far up the road we found the site and the guys. After putting up the tent I got straight into washing clothes, even though the chances of them drying was virtually non existent at this time of night.

Drying clothes is a bit of a mission

Then threw myself into the shower, before Julia got stuck into the blog which we haven’t uploaded for three days, I put tea together and …finally managed to contact Dad at Anna’s in Switzerland. He has been trying to contact us, as much as we have, him. He is fine and safe, so the evening ended well. Phil and Elizabeth took a walk into town, while Ju and I carried on with the blog, before bed about ten.

20th September (cloudy morning, sunny afternoon, warm) 46 km

We all know that the French are religious. Any sins that you’ve committed during the day, let alone the week, well, it’s off to your nearest church to confess those sins and pay the price. They come in all different types of payment styles from your usual Hail Marys to the lesser known varieties, which are not spoken about in rural France, less the church is seen in a negative way.

It just so happens that God around these parts, deems it so, that everyone must wake at 7am with the chimes of the church bells and start doing “His work.” It doesn’t matter that you are a young mum who has been up all night with a baby that won’t sleep, or you are a shift worker just arrived home and closed your eyes after a long nights toil.

In this particular part of France it starts with a solitary chime of the bell at one minute to seven. If you’re a light sleeper, such as I, you are now prepared for what is to come. But….just in case you’re not, this is what happens. At 7am you receive seven rings of the bell, followed a minute later by another seven rings. For the confused and bewildered, it is now 14 o clock and your day is half over. Two minutes after the second set, the place goes crazy and there are bells ringing everywhere. God is not amused with those who thought that they would take an extra couple of zzz’s, hence cutting back on productivity.

What the majority of non-believers don’t know is that those bells are not, as you would imagine nowadays, computerised, there is in fact someone ringing those chimes. Take the case of 94year old Maree-Louise.  A devout church goer all her life. You’d think she’d get a reprieve….1 for being 94 and…2 for being a believer all her life. No… here she is at a few minutes before 7am trudging slowly up the cobbled streets to the bell tower. Every time she pulls on the bell, it shoots her twenty feet into the air. She manages to control it for the first two sets of precisely rung seven chimes, but then, because of her age and lack of muscle strength, she loses it and so the cacophony of chimes. All this because she put too much lemon rind in her lemon meringue pie, for the local church fete.

So after Pete’s rant, you may have gathered that we got up just after 7am.  Started with the obligatory cup of tea, muesli and yoghurt followed by coffee, and for Pete (aka the bottomless pit) some bread and cheese.  Packed up a very wet tent due purely to condensation – still haven’t had rain.  Kept the flysheet packed separately to drag out later to dry. 

Set off at 9.30am and began the day with a minor disagreement about which way to go.  It didn’t matter that I was holding Maps Me in my hand (plus the fact that I’m always right), Peter insisted that we go the way he thought.  I tried to show him that yes, his sense of direction was intact but if we wanted the coastal route, we had to go this way first.  I think he thought I was on a mission for a swim and was going to drag him round a few unnecessary kms to achieve that objective.  However, it was pretty cool still and I was not dying for a swim although I have to admit, I was keen to at least see the ocean.

Anyway, he soon thawed out when he realised I was not on a mission to kidnap him and drag him kicking and screaming to every appealing swimming spot that was in a 10km radius.  We had a stunning day of riding following a cycle path for the 35 km to Les Sables d’Olonne.  No traffic, often through the woods or over the sand dunes or along the beach.  

Our first look at the Atlantic Ocean - not very inviting !

Some impressive rock formations on the Cote Sauvage

Our first sight of the Atlantic Ocean was very rocky and grey looking, not appealing at all.  But as we passed the town of Brem sur Mer, we spied an expanse of golden sand and decided this was a good spot for a swim.  It felt chilly as we first got in but once we’d been under a few times, it felt great.  We both reckon it was about 16-17 C, so we only stayed in about ten minutes.

First ocean swim - yeeha!!

Got dried and dressed and pedalled round a little further to watch some surfers in what looked like fairly big surf from down the beach, but when we got there, it wasn’t that big and even though there were about ten guys out, only saw one catch a wave, so we pedalled a bit further on.  Found some picnic tables so stopped for lunch and dried the tent fly out at the same time.

We had a lot of beautiful tracks like this one to enjoy today

The canal area was very scenic 

Most of the houses have a mediterranean look to them.

Lunchtime

After this we cycled through some canals and man-made ponds.  Not quite sure what this was all about but surmised they might be private fishing ponds, even though we didn’t see one person fishing.  It was very scenic in a different sort of way. 

What really impressed me today was the constant smell of these hedges they had growing everywhere – they smelled very much like jasmine and it was lovely.  

The day was warming up and we were getting keen for another swim, so after cycling all round Les Sables d’Olonne, we came across the main beach of this city by Tourist Info.  This place reminds us a lot of the Gold Coast with many high rise apartment buildings and it was pretty busy today, so it must be chaos in tourist season.

Our first look at Les Sables d'Olonne

The beach at Les Sables

We enquired at Tourist Info first about what campgrounds were open and found there was one just 4kms down the road.  So decided we would stay here for the night and hopefully Phil and Elizabeth would catch up with us.  We went for a couple of swims and even though the waves were quite weak, I managed to bodysurf a couple which felt fantastic. We felt it was a degree or two warmer here as well.  Just as we were putting our shoes back on, Phil and Liz roll up.  So Pete and I got an ice-cream and watched over the bikes while they went for a swim and then we all cycled to the supermarket together.  Bought the evening’s supplies and then cycled to the campground.  16 euros per couple, and no free wifi – bit of a rip-off but by now it was 6.15pm so we weren’t going anywhere else.

The guy at reception was a miserable git, the first person we’ve encountered like that since we’ve been in France. It’s Pete here, by the way. The best part about today for me was in fact swimming in the Atlantic and it being reasonably warm, we reckon around 17 or 18 degrees. You can tell what the people who live here do most of the time, by the tans that are on show. It was good to catch up with Elizabeth and Phil, but alas, we have not heard from Dad yet, which is a little concerning. However, Elizabeth did tell me that when she was last in Switzerland, she had no reception whatsoever.

Hopefully this means that Dad is not laying by the railway lines in Basel, Switzerland, the last place we heard from him, having been mugged and assaulted and now suffering from dementia, hence, not knowing how to contact us….or even, what a phone is used for. I am now off for a shave and shower before hitting the hay.

19th September (sunny and warm) 85 km

Well done Jimmy - you did it!!!

Aaah the luxury of a bed, but we didn’t get to enjoy it overly long as we had to make the most of the excellent wifi and so we were up ‘til 11.45 last night and set the alarm for 7am this morning.  Pete was very nervous about getting his Dad on the train and all his tickets booked through to Olten in Switzerland so there was no lingering over breakfast this morning.  Up, showered, breakfasted and out the door before 9am.

We walked in a procession the 500 odd metres to the tram stop with Jimmy balancing his bag on top of my panniers.  We had a bit of a clear out on our overnight stop.  Pete has been putting up with an inflatable mattress that goes down every night, so we got rid of that and Pete took ownership of Jimmy’s one.  That was one less thing for Jimmy to carry.  I suggested he give his tent to one of the refugees in town but he has decided to take it to Switzerland and give it to his friends there.

We didn’t have any change to buy a tram ticket for Jimmy from the ticket dispenser so we chucked him on the tram with a 5 euro note and told him if anyone asked to see his ticket, just to plead ignorance and give them the 5 euros.  As it turned out, nobody asked him for money or ticket.  Meanwhile, Pete and I cycled into town, negotiating our way past the refugee camp.  The most direct cycle path goes straight through it, which we weren’t keen to do and nobody else was either, so we skirted round the edge.  Pete asks, “Which way are we going?” 

This is a very small part of the refugee camp and it is seriously right in the middle of town.

I just jumped on my bike and said “Away from the knife wielding angry man over there!” as I saw a bare chested man threaten his friend with a knife – admittedly it was only a bread and butter knife but hey, if he knew we had a full loaf of unbuttered bread in our panniers, we could have been in big trouble!

Ju gives Jimmy a lift with his bag

We arrived at the train station shortly after Jimmy and all proceeded around to the ticket office.  Jimmy and Pete went inside while I stood guard over the bikes so adopted my best staunch, don’t mess with me stance.  Until I got bored after five minutes and started doing a few yoga stretches.

About halfway through chavasana (the corpse pose at the end of my hour long routine – no just kidding, it was only about 20 mins waiting), Pete and Jimmy emerged victorious with tickets in hand with two changes for Jimmy – one in Paris, the other at Basel and he should arrive at his friend’s house in Switzerland about 6.30pm tonight.

Pete here.  When we entered the ticket office, we had no clue that you had to take a number and wait your turn. A nice lady saw us come in, guessed we had no clue and told us what to do. We then watched as five people assisted others with their enquiries, including the nice lady. As the numbers got closer on the screen, we were hoping we’d get the nice lady, as she kept looking over to see if we were okay….and as luck and good timing went….we did. She hardly spoke English, but between the two of us and Dad smiling in the background, she sorted everything for him and even gave him some options, which she didn’t need to do. I never got your name, but thank you so much for your kindness and may the gods smile upon you.

It was sad saying goodbye to Jimmy

It was sad saying bye to Dad, but he’s off on his own little adventure now, as are we. The most important thing for me is that he’s safe. As the train pulled away, we gave one last wave, turned and cycled off toward the coast. Julia had been busy organising a route and we had plain sailing out of Nantes. It was good to be able to get into some mileage and we clipped along at a steady speed.  Elizabeth and Phil were setting off from their campground further north so we said we’d see them on the road or at the end of the day. 

But there was also a measure of relief that we got him
through two weeks of bike touring relatively unscathed.

At about 12.30pm, having left Dad at 11.15am, we stopped for lunch at La Chevroliere, by the side of yet another, stagnant pond. It wasn’t as bad as it sounds and we enjoyed a nice meal. By then we’d covered 20kms, so now began the second session. This was longer and into a head wind, which had been there all day, but was now a little more intense. Julia was beginning to feel a little light headed, although cycling strongly and when we arrived at St Christophe du Ligneron, with a nice church and a tabac store that was open, we stopped. 

Sitting on the seat outside the doors eating some chocolate and drinking a coke and a bloody pigeon shits on my leg from up above. That’s no way to try to convert me to the other side, let me tell you. 

And a certain amount of happiness the responsibility
for his welfare had been lifted from us!

Around the back of the church, but a part of the building were some nice toilets, so we made full use of them.

Ploughing into the strong breeze, we kept a steady pace, both, now feeling good and eating up the miles. We’d had little contact with Elizabeth and Phil who were headed in the same direction, hoping to do some cycling with us over the near future, but when Ju got a call, Liz said that Phil had fixed two punctures today….bummer.

The front of the church in St Christophe du Ligneron

The back of the church at St Christophe du Ligneron......brings
a whole new meaning to "God, I needed that!"

We were heading for St. Gilles La Croix, a beautiful seaside town, just up our street, back to what we know. At 6pm outside the Super U supermarket there, we pondered on which campsite to take – so many showed up on MapsMe.  What it didn’t show however was that they were all closed for the season!  For the next hour and a half we rode around trying to find one that was open. What the hell is that about…. ? Finally at 8pm, at the sixth campground, we asked a nice guy who took us to the camp manager who agreed to take pity on us, giving us a pitch for only 10 euros. We are the only people here. Showers and toilets laid on… fantastic.

Liz and Phil finally rolled into the same town and found a pitch at La Padrelle at 8.30pm - they had wisely used the internet to check if it was open before leaving Nantes.

Showered, ate and all is well with the world……although we haven’t heard from Dad since 5.30pm so hope he didn’t fall asleep on the train and wind up in Istanbul.