We had a mad few days before we left Ireland, getting all our gear sorted for the bikes, packing up our lives into cardboard box’s and trying to spend as much time with our family and loved ones as possible. On the morning of our leaving day all three of us were still doing last minute packing and adjustments to the bikes, so last minute in fact that we were late to our own send off at the Blue haven in Kinsale, we got on the bikes and and rode then for the first time fully loaded with all our gear, the look on each others faces was classic,a look of realization that we had far too much stuff and we couldn’t even pick the bikes up to get them out from Katie-jo’s back yard, thankfully the first leg of our trip was down hill and we all wobbled down the road and we cycled into Kinsale town and up to the Blue haven where family and friends were all waiting as well as the Mayor of Kinsale. 
As we were already late and it soon became time to leave so we could get to the ferry in time, we made a good start getting out of Kinsale but we wanted to go and see Robbie and his family at the bike shop in Carrigaline and get some photos for the K2K page, there wasn’t enough time to do it if we cycled so we shoved our bikes in to the back of Will’s parents pick up and all got in to Katie-jo’s car and drove to Robbie’s, we made more last minute adjustments and bought some food in the Polish shop next door as all the shops were likely to be closed in France due to it being easter sunday when we made port. 
The guys at the Polskie shop came out and gave us a crate of oranges for the trip so we stuffed oranges into every spare bit of space in the panniers and then got on the bikes and cycled to the ferry port where we said our last last good byes and got in the que for the ferry where they staff came over to us and asked if we were the three mad lads setting off on bike to India, we told them that we were they and that gave them a good laugh. We got up onto the top deck of the ferry and went straight to the info desk and tried to blag a cabin for free but the woman behind the desk said that of course we could have a cabin but she would have to charge us for it, so after that nice refusal we went to the next best place and went to the bar and started with three pints of Murphy’s, it was going quite well until the boat entertainment started up and some guy who seriously though a lot more of himself than was due started to sing and tried to pull people out of their seats to dance, we got up and left after we had about nine pints between us and went to the cinema to watch Jack Reacher where we laughed so much at how Tom Cruise made himself look like a tall person, the hysterical laughter might also have been down to the bottle of Jameson’s we drank as we watched the movie, we didn’t have a cabin so the only way we could make bed time seem ok was to not remember when bed time came. We went back to the bar and two guys who were also on a cycle trip came over and started talking to us because they had seen us in the Irish Examiner paper the day before and wanted to ask us if we really hadn’t much love for cycling bikes, we told them that the title of the article was a little over exaggerated but no we weren’t really that keen on the idea of cycling ten thousand kilometers. We did find a place to sleep in the end, it was a small crawl space on the flaw behind the bill boards and it had a plug socket to charge up the laptop and our phones, we woke up after what seemed to be no time at all to a far too load alarm and got up and found a free shower and stole a load of toilet roll then made our way down to the bikes and bumped into a French guy who asked us about our trip and why we had all matching clothing, we told him where we were going and he said that if we ran out of money while in France that we should still go into cafe’s and order food but when it came to paying just tell the staff that we had no money but would be prepared to work for our food that we had just eaten, we thought that we would probably pass on that bit of advice and went on down to the bikes and waited until everyone was gone before we set off out of the ferry. When we got out it was still very dark but with a slight hint of blue showing on the horizon and as we cycled out of the ferry port we met up with the two other cyclists who were doing a two week trip around France, they soon overtook us and we didn’t see them again. We were completely buzzing from the idea that we had made it and were finally on the road and doing what we had been planning over the last year and driving our friends and family mad with the constant talk of K2K We made it to Morlaix in good time and were pleased to find that there was a market going on and a bakery open even though it was easter sunday, we stocked up on bread and bought lots of fresh cooked sausages, it was bloody cold and our hands were shaking like mad as we ate our first breakfast in France. After the bite to eat we made our way down into Morlaix and got completely lost because even though we had been planning this trip for over a year we hadn’t really looked at a map of France and didn’t have a clue as to where we were meant to be going, it was uphill and really took it out of us as we were still sweating the Jameson’s out of our system from the not too long ago night before. 
after about an hour of going back up hills and winding our way through back streets we found our way the road we were after that would take us though a kind of national park. We did over ten hours of cycling on our first day and only made 47.5km and we were wreaked, we managed to set up a camp hidden behind some trees from the road, I literally put my tent up and blew up my bed then passed out was snoring in my tent, Sam and Will couldn’t believe it but soon followed suit and we all slept and forgot to lock the bikes or even bring our stuff in to the tents. we woke up as it got really cold with the tent doors open and cooked dinner , Pasta and chorizo with cheese (that was going to be the same dinner for the next two weeks) The next day we got up pretty early and took down camp and there was ice all over the place,
we made pretty good milage that day because we camped at the top of a hill and for the first real time we got to freewheel for about twenty minutes, we were trying to get to the Brest a Nantes grand canal because it would be an easy ride along the canal, it being flat with hardly any hills. We made it to the canal and managed to do nearly eighty kilometers in a day, we set up camp at a picnic spot alongside the canal and had a great sleep despite the cold, today we only had to cycle about twenty five kilometers down the canal to a place called Gouarec where we were to meet a guy Called Graham who said we could stay at his place for a night, clean our clothes, shower and he even cooked us dinner. We got to Gouarec at the wrong time because France closes at twelve for two and a half hours, we can’t get used to it and keep having to wait outside supermarkets until they open. The only shop open was “The UK food shop” so wee went in and got some Guinness and malt cake and got talking to the local english population of Gouarec, asking them if they knew of a Graham and one of the women in the shop knew who we were talking about and because he lived up near her, she gave us directions to Grahams place and we left the village of Gouarec and went over the bridge and round the corner to find a bloody great big long monster of a hill that completely trounced us because we had been getting soft from the easy cycling along the canal. We got to Grahams and were totally welcomed into his house by him and his dog Jess, we had a little bit of a chat then he showed us the barn where we could leave the bikes then he took us into his house where he continued to show us round and show us the spare room we could use for the night then he left us to go to the shops so he could get us our dinner for the night, we all got cleaned up and put on some smart clothes and then all sat down for dinner where Graham told us tales from his travels before he moved to France and gave us great advice about always making sure you have a beer with your dinner to make sure you don’t get ill and not to eat salads when you are out in the far east because quite often they are washed with unclean water, we took this advice to heart and made it the K2K motto – Drink a beer at every meal and don’t eat salads. Graham was and is a great bloke and a total gentleman with fantastic stories and tales to tell, we are all very grateful for our stay at his house 
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