Lads' cycling trip to France is trumped by wives | Rick Jackson

Last year, I spent a very enjoyable few days cycling been the two ferry ports of St Malo and Ouistreham with my best mate.

We’d been talking about it for years and we finally made it happen.

We thought that a repeat performance would be out of the question in light of this year’s events.

However, light at the end of the tunnel and some optimism means we can do an early September trip as opposed to the one we did in June last year.

Little did we know that our wives have been planning a trip for themselves in our absence and this information was dropped on us this week.

With foreign holiday prices dropping like stones, they’ve found a cheap-as-chips, four-star, all-inclusive resort in Cyprus.

All of a sudden, I don’t fancy a three-day, 150-odd-mile cycle ride through northern France while the family are living it up in Paphos.

Somehow this did not seem to be a problem when I knew they would be at home! Funny that...

So, we’ve decided to ‘up the ante’ on our trip to France.

If the girls are having a bit of luxury, why can’t we?

The plan is now to take a car and some tents and head down to the Vendée. The Atlantic coast of France is stunning and perfect for a cycling holiday.

We can base ourselves at one of those brilliant French campsites, go exploring on our bikes during the day and then enjoy the local facilities in the evening.

Last year, it was just a case of cycling all day and using a hotel to simply sleep in before heading off the next day.

Now, with the thought of our nearest and dearest enjoying 30C and plenty of Commandaria and zivania we felt the need to upgrade our trip.

On top of the stunning Vendée scenery and plenty of muscadet, the delayed Tour de France is also in the area around the time of our trip, so the chance to take in some of its stages is a must for any cycling fan.

Would ferry nationalisation give better service to island?

People on the Isle of Wight have created a lot of online ‘noise’ about the lack of FastCat services to Ryde with Wightlink. It returns at the end of the month after 2,000 islanders signed a petition calling for its resumption.

All Isle of Wight ferry services are privately owned with no regulation and I think the island gets an excellent service with modern ferries. With no direct route competition though, it can get pricey.

Islanders love to moan about ferries but they’d be surprised how many crossings make a loss.

In Scotland, their ferries are nationalised. Would the Isle of Wight and Channel Islands get a better service if theirs were too?

Cruise ship torment on our very expensive camping trip

After the amount of money we have spent for our seven-night camping holiday this week, it had better not be the last, even if we hate it!

On top of the campsite and ferry comes the cost of the tent. We bought a second-hand one, but we still needed sleeping bags, a cooker, table, shelves, lights and other bits and bobs to make the trip as comfortable as possible.

Then, it was decided we needed a roof box. So £450 later I’m beginning to wonder if I would have been better off swimming from the beach in Sandown out to the cruise ship anchored there – the one we would have been on if it wasn’t for Covid-19.

An angry face emoji would sum up perfectly how I’m feeling at the moment!