Leaving the ferry, it takes me a while to get out of the labyrinth of the terminal. I am the only two-wheeler on the boat and the terminal infrastructure is clearly not designed to receive bicycles. I get lost between gates and checkpoints. No one has ever thought that a stranger, coming from “Europe” would ever be so crazy to risk his life with a bicycle on the English roads..
I quickly thereafter discover why...
I don’t find immediatly the beginning of the Via Francigena track and decide to pick up the route in Shepherdswell, which is along the way. My GPS sends me on the A2.... no bicycle path, unexisting indications where bicycles are supposed to drive and cars which are passing by at horrible speed... this is not a good idea....
In Shepherdswell, I pick up the original path but this is not a brilliant decision either... a lot of gravel, sometimes hardly doable by foot.... I drive in a beautiful hilly landscape with grazing sheep and yellow reepseed but risk a flat tire every second... I will need to figure out in the next days how I get myself organized, if not, I I don’t make it to Rome....
You will get to Rome, I'm sure. A few flat tyres will not stop you.