We made it to the Mediterranean! Some 1600km from London.

The WarmShowers website was really working for us. When John and I arrived outside Funky Frank’s house in Fréjus we wrongly assumed the skateboard propped to the wall belonged to one of his two sons. Funky Frank had a hip vibe with his trans background music setting the tone for the night ahead. His log cabin in a small jungle surround was a perfect spot to relax after a 90km cycle.

But there was no time to sit and relax. Funky Frank firstly took us to the local rugby club to watch South Africa beat England and then after a quick show around town treated us to some raclette for dinner.

An early start the next morning and Funky Frank was at his ready with his ELECTRIC bicycle for an outride. He would not miss out on an epic ride along the now brilliantly sunlit beachfront where he reckons you can find some of the most beautiful middle aged girls who strut their stuff along the seaside. Thanks Frank for an awesome stay. We loved it.

We made our way to Nice, where we we stayed with Mature Spring Chicken Hugh and Doctor Froggie who are family friends of John’s. We needed a well earned break from all the rain (apparently the most rain for fifty years in this region). We had brilliant weather for the whole week.

But there was no rest for us two plonkers. Hugh had us slaving away at all sorts. Being a PR man himself, we were in all sorts of trouble for what we had not done before the trip started. We printed flyers, updated profiles, did some networking and contacted people that Hugh knows at embassies that we would be passing through on our journey.

Hugh also arranged quite some memorable dinner parties where we met some really interesting people (Dylan, Catherine, Bruce and Andrew it was great meeting you all).

Doctor Froggie was mostly in charge of cooking some real French cuisine which included snails, frog legs and some cured intestine pate. The food was a real treat. Being the head of pharmacies in France, he was also able to help us with some medication which we weren’t able to get in England.

We made a speech at Hugh’s local Irish pub. After John’s brilliant first attempt at our farewell party in Putney, I volunteered to introduce John to the shell shocked crowd. It was all good practice for the road ahead and after passing the hat around we made all of £50 for Save the Rhino International (our chosen sponsor that you all still have to donate to: click here to donate).

John also went to a hotel school in Menton for a 3 course meal with the British Association of the Riviera and was the youngest person there by a margin of 27 years. He delivered a great speech about our trip and collected some donations for the rhinos. Whilst there, somebody pointed out that our journey is nearly 12% complete. We had not yet worked that one out and we’re very happy with our progress thus far.

I was lucky enough to have Anja join us for a lovely weekend too. All her wishes came true when her return flight to London got cancelled and she could join us for another night including the leg of lamb that she thought she might miss out on.

Thank you Hugh and Doctor Froggie for the lengths that you both went to. We had a wonderful time in Nice.