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Then suddenly it seemed like the trip was drawing to a close, all I had left was the 350 to 400 miles back up England to Blackpool.

One concern was the ferries from Cherbourg to England all left towards the end of the day and disembarked at their destination after 10pm. This could have been a real problem for a guy on a bicycle in a big city and at best would probably mean an expensive and short hotel stay.

Fortunately there was a choice of destinations, the built-up urban center of Portsmouth vs. the much smaller Poole. I chose Poole.

Before my screw-up of disembarking in Brittany instead of Normandy I had originally intended to cross over from Calais so as to witness the migrant camps and to see the famous white cliffs of Dover. As it was the much less renowned beige cliffs of Poole would have to do instead



Even landing in a smaller community, I was still facing something of an ordeal getting off the ferry as I did close to 11pm. My options were 1) find a quiet and safe spot to sleep, not easy to do after dark and Poole, small as it was, was still not country. 2) Find a campground, but the nearest was four miles off and some sort of "resort", not ordinarily the sort of place that welcomes homeless-looking tent traveller. Or 3) a hotel, this was a distant third, I just weren't into paying $100 or so just for a roof at that point.

As it was I didn't have to worry, there were lots of folks parked in lines overnight waiting for an early-morning ferry, in an area provided with showers and free bathrooms for the nominal fee of 5 pounds per night



I set up my tent without stakes on pavement in a sheltered spot out of the wind and slept until daylight.

Cork/Cobh back in Ireland had been a tremendous natural harbor, a small opening leading to a series of sheltered bays. The morning light revealed that Poole was the same way. Hordes of private craft, big and small. England is a crowded place.







One thing that struck me from the get-go, the older rows of houses were so distinctively British Isles, in stark contrast to the ones in France just a short distance away across the Channel.