August 16, 2009
A Terrible Trip on the Ferry to Calais: Was this whole enterprise completely unrealistic?
We have had a very worrying time but things are a bit better now.
After a delicious breakfast at 7.30 we loaded up and set off. As usual lots of uphill but no steps today. The route took us along the cliffs and beside Dover Castle. Just before the last climb is the Bleriot Memorial. There is a life sized outline of his plane on the ground exactly where he had landed with some damage to his under cart. There are lots of trees there now and when we saw it it was 100 years and 3 weeks since that historic first flight of the English Channel.
At the top of the climb Tricia was feeling tired but after a brief rest we took the steep descent into Dover again. Then along the shore and we killed a bit of time watching the swimmers.
From there we followed the pink line all around the docks and into the waiting area. Saw a group of 40 odd cyclists off on a tour of the WW1 Battlefields; they were unloaded as they had a Sag Wagon. Finally onto the ferry and quite easily parked and secured the bikes. It was up steep stairs to the front of the boat and Tricia sure was making heavy weather of it. Then Tricia told me she was really feeling very unwell, her heart was racing and she thought she might pass out. I tried to take her pulse – it was over 200 – with the shaking of the boat engines I couldn’t count it properly and never could decide if it was irregular – however it was impressively fast.
There was a real holiday spirit among the crowd and everyone was having a great time. We didn’t enjoy the crossing one bit, as we approached France we were trying to work out a plan. The rate had come down a bit but it was still very rapid. When we berthed she felt she was able to get herself and her bike off and actually it proved to be relatively easy as there were no slopes involved. We followed the directions and signs into Calais. By now we had of course given up any plans of riding further. Miraculously we came across the Victoria Hotel and Tricia went in a got us a room for 50E. The plan was to check in and call a cab to take us to the hospital. I was convinced that she would need Cardioversion as she had now been in this abnormal rhythm for several hours. She lay down and said ‘I feel much better now’. I took her pulse and it was down to not much over 100! We decided against the hospital, Tricia had a sleep and I explored this lovely city and researched the route out.
There was an amazing part just along the road with lots of cafes and eating places and a beautiful Hotel de Ville with a huge tower that we had seen from out at sea. I even found a shop to buy water and beer. Tricia had some beer (pulse now 80) and by 6.00 we had charged most things and were ready to go out again and eat. There was a lovely little restaurant just along from the Victoria where we had Moules Mariner and a glass of wine. Very nice it was too – it takes a long time to eat the little moules, most look too young to leave their mothers.
How to proceed from here? Tricia assured me that she was perfectly back to normal. There was therefore only one thing to do - ride our bikes to Rome. I had never been able to decide whether she was in AF or had Reentrant Tachycardia as with the pounding engines of the ferry and the extremely rapid pulse I just couldn’t tell whether or not her rhythm was irregular.
PS On my return to Auckland I (Tricia) went to a Cardiologist and subsequently had an ablation for Reentrant Tachycardia – since then I have never had another episode not even one lasting for a few seconds.
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Today's ride: 9 km (6 miles)
Total: 260 km (161 miles)
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