It could only happen to us!

Wednesday 10th April 2013

Today, as is always the case, we set off for our next campsite making sure the sat nav didn't take us on any toll roads which are getting really expensive now. It means in general we have a nice relaxed journey seeing many sights and town centres you would not normally see. I could see that we were only a few kilometres away from our next campsite at the end of our journey with only a small town to pass through. On approach to the town I immediately noticed a bit more activity at the side of the road than one would find normally for a town of this size. Then people in yellow jackets holding paddles started to appear at junctions which wasn't a problem until we reached a junction the sat nav wanted us to take, only to be waved into the wrong road. Suddenly people were everywhere and the sat nav was now getting cross with me as we were waved into more roads we didn't want to take. We now appeared to be heading towards the centre of the town and felt like we were the only vehicle on this section of road. The waving of the marshals with their paddles was getting more urgent with increasing numbers of barriers and people behind then watching our slow nervous progress into the centre of town. We reached a roundabout and the sat nav has a loud gong' sound on it when it detects you are on the wrong road and the voice was frantically telling me to turn into roads that were now impossible. It is at this stage when you realise that our lack of understanding the language etc is really against us when at a roundabout I decided I wanted to take the third exit when the man with the paddle was pointing at the first exit. I put my thumb up and he replied with his thumb up and we swung around taking the third exit. His expression was priceless and I could almost detect the gasp from the crowds either side of us. We slowly crept up into what was the real centre of the town and the road was looking less like a road now with barriers getting narrower and the crowds closer to us watching us with interest. As it dawned on us we were now in the latter stages of an important and large bike race I suddenly heard the sirens and saw in my mirrors the lead car of the impending peloton. Also I realised our snails speed of 20mph would now have to increase to stand a chance of keeping ahead of the peloton. The gongs from the sat nav were now deafening joined by the towns tannoy system and crowds trying to hurry us along towards the finish line which was now in sight!. I will never forget the official as we approached the now very narrow finish line hanging out of his elevated box shouting at us "aller, aller, aller" (go…go..go!) So I did, putting my foot down exiting the finish area and disappearing up a side street to recompose ourselves. The sat nav was now trembling on the dashboard and we soon found that roundabout once more taking the first exit this time and giving the nice man with a paddle a courteous smile as we passed. We managed to navigate around the town and arrived at the next campsite a bit later to really enjoy that relaxing cup of coffee.  

Au revoir