Day 35 - Amiens to Arras - ride total 2,757 k, 17,127 m

The longer one is on a ride, the better one gets at packing, and today was no exception. Basically all I have to do is cram whatever I took out of the right hand dry bag and front box back in to them (the left hand dry bag is packed with stuff that is not always needed like my merino top and leggings, sleeping bag liner and the like). Thought I did a really good job of packing today.

Just as we were about to go Peter says "It's raining out there". The fact that it was raining didn't bother me and I popped the raincoat on, and within a couple of km's we had a serious downpour so I appreciciated having the coat.

There were no boulangaries for coffee shops  that were open so the boys had to go without their morning tea coffee - Oh Dear. At the 40 k mark we found the Boulangerie and then got underway again.

We past the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery of Villers Gogage where 72 yound servicemen have their graves - each grave and the cemetery itself were all well cared for by the Commission. I took a pic of one headstone and will reesearch the details of the soldier laying there.

A good section of the route was on sealed rail trail with a gentle downhill gradient.

As per generally our route map took us along some unsealed section of  track which is not normally a problem. i.e.unless it has been raining in the oreceeding day or two and at one point the seal ran out and we were on gravel that become grass tracks that became a muddy section. I continued riding until the mud had caused that much of a problem to clog up my wheels and frame and right at that point the it also forced the chain off the front chainring!

I had no choice to but to stop and push. After a few hundred metres fo pushing I came across the track again and a puddle so took opportunity to try and wash as much mud off of things. It worked reasonably wel although I could hear, see and feel that the drive train had mud and gunge in it.

We did get bacl onto the seal and passed through a village and it was here that I was scanning the houses more intently as I was looking for a place that had a hose in their garden and that they were home. Before too long I found a likely candidate and in my best French called out a Bon Jour toward the open door - a young Mum appeared and I showed her my phone with the from translated message on it. We were in luck and she bought the hise to the roadside and we gave our bikes the good wash they were crying out for.

A short while later the trail once again reverted to mud and grass although not as bad as the first encountered however enough to once again clog up things. This time the wash in the puddle did a reasonable job so on we went. My drive to train was not happy and another another rather than ride the 20 km's knowing things and are not good once again I kept my eye out for another hose.

We didn't see one but what I did see was a small of people chattin on the lawn in front of their house - so back I went and in a few minutes with the help of Google translate (see pic) we had a hose, a brush and our water bottle refilled.

Three clean bikes later we were back on the rail trail with 20 km's  to go.

Coming in to Arras we saw a Castle with a moat, ent arance gate nd steep walls leading up from the Moat so we popped in to have a look. In the gate house area we exchanged "Bonjours" with a family group. When they saw us taking photos through sign language they offerred to take our pic. At that point Australian English flowed from thier mouths and we likewise stopped communicating in French! We had a good chat with them before riding the last few km's into our Premiere Classie Hotel for the night.