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9th July 2023
Day 23, Cassis / Day off / Travel home

Blog for the day:
Another hot day by the sea in Cassis. Woke up late after a good nights sleep. Had one of the last of our large breakfast downstairs before walking around the town. Too hot to do much, so it was just people watching and relaxing. Couldn't bring back any wine or pressies as only had hand luggage. Ben went in the sea, but i just wanted to sit in the shade and snooze. The past three weeks had taken a lot out of me. The club night on the marina seem to finish early which was good. Trying to get to the airport was a bit harder than last time, so we had to wait at the station for ages as the train was delayed. The journey is lovely except when you get near Marseille which is a real shit hole. Got the connecting bus to the airport only to be told the flight was delayed by a couple of hours, so quick thinking, we caught a bus to Aix to grab some dinner and look around which was nice. Lovely city. Got back and managed to get through even though they had closed the gate? Sat around for ages till the proper gate opened. Got there and the late plane then had technical issues. Another hour or so delayed. Got on the plane, missed out slot, another hour. Managed to take off and woke up over England. Landed and delayed again because no bus to take us to the terminal. Groan. Finally got home and unpacked when the van arrived after a few hours sleep.

Still have mixed feelings about how the trip went, looking back at the amazing photos, it was so special. Fantastic memories and good fun. I thought we would have done more miles, but it looks very similar to the last French trip in total mileage. The Alps were just the best, but every day from the start just got better and better. The countryside changing constantly. We were maybe lucky with the weather, it wasn't super hot until the very end and only had a couple of wet days. Would have preferred no wet days, but hey. I think it is very hard to do this kinda trip as you want to have a great time, but as an organiser, you got to make sure everyone else is ok too. At the moment the last day has a bitter taste in my mouth and i don't know if that will change. Will I plan another? Probably not as the amount of work that goes in to it is endless. I don't know how many hours it has taken out of my life to plan the routes, book hotels, restaurants, ferry's, basically everything which went in to the trip to make it as smooth as possible. The budget came in pretty much bang on. Still a few more bills like fuel for the van. There might be a slight refund of £10 each lol, having spent the emergency money also. I think the whole thing cost around £1,700 each for everything apart from eating out. Ferry, hotels, campsites, breakfasts, lunch, van hire and fuel, driver costs, printing maps etc. All this was done at cost, no profit made by me. Compared to companies which do this for a living and it was a great deal. A week in Mallorca training camp is about £1,000 then add in flights.

Anyway, all done now, need to get back on bike when the weather improves. Great trip, great people, great laughs. Maybe i would do it again lol