I am lying in bed in Obernai in Alsace trying to prop my eyes open.

Panto has already fallen asleep at the dinner table and everyone is struggling, some more than others. It seems as if we have ridden half way across Europe in the past five days, which in fact is exactly what we have done and we are well on the way back to the UK. So all in all about 1700 miles or 3000 Kms so far.

By african or Alaskan standards, these distances are not vast. But factor in a little village with a 50 or sometimes even 30 km/h speed limit and huge amounts of traffic everywhere, and it is exhausting. Added to which is Mr. Garmin’s faux par with the new software upgrade that has left everyone with a Nav system that has a mind of it’s own, and one developed in Afghanistan. Three identical units loaded with the identical routes and three different directions to go. So we are having to revert to good old map reading. This works OK on the inter town route but in town we have no street maps so the Garmin is essential.