Normandy Way, the newest addition to Waytrails, takes you on a 300km cycle loop of Normandy. You’ll experience the D-Day beaches, stories, insights and the history of this amazing place including Carentan, Bayeux and Caen.
Rory, Kim and the Waytrails team thought it was a good idea to run the entire 300km non-stop in what can only be described as a hurricane. Hear the stories, the adventures and what went right…and of course what went wrong.
[Music] welcome to hike Bike Run the official podcast of white Trails please welcome my co-founder Kim hello hi good morning hi hi hi good morning so today we are most excited because we’re going to tell you about our new Trail yeah Normandy way Normandy way which for those of you with the way trails app will have seen live in the menu page yes and it follows on from our Flagship Trail the Western forway it does so the Normandy way give The Bare Bones Bare Bones Bare Bones so it’s it’s very simple it’s a 300 km cycling Loop mhm uh all other cycling trails in Normandy are tend to be linear so you it’s quite a long way then you’ve got to go back the same direction so actually what Normandy way does it takes in the beaches and then you loop back um on a on the southern section um and you get a bit of Norman history you get um French Farmland you come in Via Bayer um and K and then you go back up to W okay so Normandy way that’s that’s good let’s just expand on that a little bit because Normandy D-Day you know hugely synonymous um as we always say when we’re talking to people Western Front first world war would all really happened there I know you know you’ve got gipo and you’ve got the Italian Alps but principally the entire world war happened in a thousand kilometers yes um that’s not doing disservice to anyone else that was fighting anywhere else but the second world war because it was so much more movable because of technology and speed and just a sheer scale of it find some finding somewhere where there is that much information where so much happened is rare also that you can still see so much that’s almost left over from it I think that and I came out this bit of history with very little knowledge yep and um when we when we tricked across the the the beaches um there was so much to see there is that I was sort of informed as I went so uh I I just went with the stories really definitely and you can almost it as you as you go along I thought that was quite cool um and the loop as well because Norman history is Broad and it is older than D-Day yeah as as much as that is the you know principal thing you’re going to see on the beach exactly but when you loot around the round the side and around the back and you come into bu I mean the bio tapestry yeah William conquer yeah yeah yeah Y and then KH is you were telling me about he’s very famous in KH yes so um William the Conqueror is buried there and as is his wife Matilda Flanders um but we’ll get we’ll get around to KH in a minute yeah we will because what we’re going to do on this part as well as introducing the Normandy way um it is the 80th anniversary of DD and June yeah uh which is already shaping up to be a mighty mighty event we saw all the festivities yeah good taking starting to be planned um what’s great is that they’ve all got behind it everything’s becoming decorated it’s it’s going to be quite a festive as well as I I don’t want to say somber but reflective I think festive with reflective yeah that’s nice festive reflective that’s good um it should put one of those on a bike people see us at night um but I think one of the last thing I’ll say before we move on to the second part of this podcast which is why we just went and ran it and how we did it oh my god um is when things like this happen the 80th you know anniversary there tends to be like a wake behind a boat left for the general public even people that had no prior knowledge of what D-Day was so the good thing about the Normandy way is because it’s not event based i. it’s not a single celebration which is therefore trapped in time you know it will it will it can go beyond it can if you want to go and do this in August September October yeah you know next year the whole point about the Normy way is it’s you know it’s it’s all seasons for all time yeah and it’s meant to be part of your vacations and you know it’s it actually attracts that area attracts a a general tourism base you know the beaches are just beautiful for families and and for play and for you know enjoying your time there so um it you get a real mixed flavor of of what you get see there so you can have the Normandy way as part of your as part of your holiday a day trip or um a trip that you dedicate to doing the loop so it can be used for for many different ways yeah it can and on a bike 300 kilm what type of bike please um I mean I would suggest a gravel bike or an adjusted road bike yeah Road bike’s trickier I would not in the South you even a mountain bike I would say yeah and we I think we recommend between 28 and 30 mm tires okay good that’s knowledge gravel tires okay so when we said about releasing a new Trail um it won’t surprise you to know that we don’t just do it from a desk when we’re not in the country and we don’t just randomly send people out on Trails so what we do is we like to check them um for the Normandy way we did a wrei in January uh bger Den which was fun lots and lots of snow so that was fun coming out in the morning seeing that but we wanted another chance to not just check the trail but we do our Trails don’t we yeah so we test our Trails um we find that quite important in weight Trails because it just adds a level of um security safety and frankly Excellence y um we like to know how our trails are develop and how they how they are in situ so we actually do them on foot um all of our Trails whether they’re cycling or hiking um and it just makes us see them for what they are you know one foot in front of the other you really take a bit more note and as you said always you know looking up rather than being on a bicycle looking down more more often when you’re running you’re looking up you’re seeing the landscape and you’re you know we we test the trail as we go yeah we do so without further Ado we’re going to take you on the journey with us uh which is a anticlockwise loop around the 300 km and we’ll pick out some of the major sites we’ll tell you some of the high high points that were some yeah and there were obviously some low points because running 300 km uh is a long way yeah so we were a team of 4 yep um and we set off very early in the morning from westram which is actually where we recommend you start the Normandy way because it’s westram is is compact it’s very easy it’s got lots of um accommodation uh it’s got lots of places you can collect food water snacks that sort of thing um and it’s just an easier way to get to it also takes you uh if you’re getting the the boat from Portsmouth that’s where you arrive and actually you arrive right back bang on the Normandy way and if you want to come in from um Mainland Europe you can travel via Paris and you can get to con and from con you can get the train yeah nice so the the two major travel hubs WAM and KH they’re both actually on the trail um the reason for that is you know just less time between getting off your transport and starting because people’s time is tight with a bicycle um if you were to come over on say the overnight on a Thursday overnight Ferry cuz there is one you know you could start on the Friday and you could take on the beaches that day which just shy of 100 and then you could Loop Round through bander Brothers territory um all the way around to Bay yeah make sure you try and see the tapestry if you can and then the final day you would loop back to wam through KH yeah so it’s kind of perfectly broken down for a long weekend with your family with your mates with anyone else that’s inclined to do this cycling but we didn’t cycle it did we no we we ran it so we began at the Monument of the flame uh which is just to the west of wam as you’re looking at it on the beaches yeah it’s where there is there’s a statue of kefir and there’s a statue of love it there just so everyone’s got our geography y um we set off at 10: to 6:00 in the morning so before the sun had come up uh I was first up and 300 km we were targeting an 8 kilm per hour Pace per Runner yeah um you know it was it was a classic seemed easy at the beginning yeah I mean it always does you’re you’re pumped and excited and had a good breakfast um but we knew that we had to also paste ourselves because we were uh we were effectively Runner down we you know we were were hoping for another Runner but so we ended up with four um and we all agreed before we set off we’re going to take it at our own pace we’re going to you know we’re also there to test it so it’s about looking at the trail and taking time to to see what’s out that it is Finish Line not finish time was we had yeah so you had the stretch yeah I had the first stretch um which is you know those those first three beaches uh we were making some notes before the Pod those first three beaches you know sword gold and Juno um they’re flat really really flat lovely and flat and they’ve got boulevards and it’s plenty of restaurants plenty of hotels um there are there are an infinite number of things in the app the way that we structure it is that when you see the kind of you know the icons of the cameras or you see the stars those are points of interest um wonderful for Normandy way we had an amazing Professor with us Andrew uh who was doing content with us which is fantastic because there is no one that knows this area better yeah so throughout the app he it’s it’s his it’s his knowledge that you will read about and you can read about him in the app because there’s a bio of him so those first three beaches I mean there is a stack to see as you will see in the app but running wise uh it’s okay like flat handovers all good um as you said everyone’s Energy’s quite High um we’ trained I think it’s fair to say Kim was actually injured before yeah I came out off the back of a off the back of an injury two injuries but it was fine but again we all agreed we would we would Pace ourselves if you need to walk walk um there’s no one standing there with like a stopwatch no no no and actually we realize again while we’re doing it it’s it’s ideal for cyclists that that prominade it’s it’s gentle you just as you’re cycling you see a lot you see the architecture beautiful buildings beautiful houses um and then obviously all the things that are scattered along the beach um as you go um and all these little Villages and towns they’ve they’re they’re really bustled and they’ve got um you know they’ve just got a beach resort atmosphere really yeah they are and we had we had a support van with us where there the four runners with myself Kim Richard and Liz uh and then we had the amazing Andy that actually had to step up and do some running later on but more on that later um so up to the if we take you to the British Normandy Memorial cuz that’s that’s where you took over wasn’t it Kim yes it was yeah beautiful that morning it was it was really St and funny enough um it wasn’t quite spring yet so the trees were didn’t have leaves you know it’s quite Stark still but again the light was beautiful the monument is supreme it’s really it’s really striking yeah it is um they have these amazing um kind of well stone tablets aren’t they they’re huge I mean they’re double the height of of a person but they actually tell you very succinctly what happened yeah because when you’re on the move if you’re doing 300 kilometers you know sometimes you want to read fast and you want to get an idea and actually those the story that’s told on there is brilliant because it gives you the pre and the post not just the day which exactly that which is contextually it’s very very difficult when you’re standing let’s say on Gold Beach it’s very difficult to think on the other side of the world two years earlier the Stalingrad that you know what I mean there this the What would so big yeah so massive yeah that they do a very good job there of giving you a border picture yeah and even even like me you arrive there without having in-depth knowledge about D-Day you go along with the narrative as you go along those beaches um so you don’t have to be um you don’t have to have much knowledge on D-Day because you’re told it as you go and because you’re there the the impact of the the landscape the topography what’s left over the remnants of of the bunkers they tell a much better story if you’re there yeah they do get you to place and you know there are no barriers you don’t need to know everything about the whole point that it’s in the app yeah and that Andrew wrote the content and we went and ran it is so that you can turn up there with absolutely diddly squat knowledge yeah and find out everything you need to know so those first three beaches quite flat and here we go there’s your here we go up to up to Omaha um do not be fooled by um um the view from the boats of Private Ryan it is not flat at all that really threw me yeah it’s Cliff like is very Cliffy I mean I thought I was kind of singing the famous song about White Cliffs of do at one point but on the wrong side of it um it’s unbelievable Hill running kind of on tracks um slightly goat like you know kind of not the greatest of all time let’s be clear just as in a goat I think actually you’re right to say about tracks that you go from um concreted prominade to to lovely dirt tracks almost um which are is used by hikers and Walkers and dog walkers and run it is um the terrain is quite good it is and Kim always makes this point which I always somehow managed to forget but please know that we’re not over there with jcbs like slamming in cycle paths or walking paths we connect existing paths and as a result the terrain can vary yes and it’s meant to also be a challenge you know we’re not to you just like you know on on an easy prom on you know you go up into the into the cliffs and then the southern section as well um you know there’s some but why would you not want to because to me that when you go out to those Cliffs you look at it as we’ve spoken about on the Western Front with the Shima Dam uh we’ve spoken about it you know at the memorial deine on the Western Front when you’re looking at those Cliffs you are thinking how on Earth did anyone ever manage to get out this beach yeah yeah yeah you know let alone form what effectively began the Liberation you know from the na like it’s it’s very very it’s very very telling over there when you’re standing there on the clifftop looking down thinking well I wouldn’t want to that thing um yeah just you know small human success stories of Ponto Hawk is you know yes where they they scrambled straight up up the cliffs and when we say straight up we mean straight up straight up um good so yeah then you slightly turn you kind of come slightly Inland which you’ll see on the map um and the way that the land Works isn’t it yeah there nothing we can do about that guys we can’t build coastlines we can build apps um you of into e and then is good car the top of car you do but don’t worry we’re coming back later um and then onto Utah which personally I found very moving yeah um I find everything about Utah very moving I think it was the place where I could drop myself back there the easiest I think okay that’s UT I think the the museum and the memorial and the way the statues are done and even down to the signage yeah is when I say it’s quite classic that font that they use on the Utah Beach is like something from the 50s and it’s very it’s left it there’s no towns or Villages near whereas all the other ones you’ve got the beach France and you know the the of beach atmosphere this really isn’t that it’s you’ve got the lovely dune grass and the interpretation that are there is is really fantastic it is H and you really feel that you’re sort of on I don’t know just wide open space it’s exposed exposed yeah that’s a really good that’s a really good point actually and then you amazingly we’re still on the beaches guys this that that’s again please please go over there because even me with all my love of you know World War II reading it and watching it I had absolutely no concept how long these beaches were none they’re they’re wide they’re long they’re wide they’re long they’re massive as far as the eye can see doesn’t do anything like justice and funny enough oddly as a beachgoer it’s that’s fantastic that’s what you want you want these luscious sandy beaches but coming at it from an an attacking point of view this you again you were very exposed and you really get to grips with that Insight I think you do so we’re you know we’re we’re amazingly it took us basically most of the day to run that beach section as relays um and it was the sun was just setting when we came off the beaches I was actually running at that point uh and I turned West to Sam marou which is a huge gun battery you can still see the gun in placements there really ominous seeing those two kind of shapes against the pinking sky does that include crisc and aav that’s area kind of that’s just giving people the geography you’re really at the most northern point of Normandy way yeah um I mean I think it’s fair to say by that stage I was carrying an injury uh so I wasn’t as fast but again you know we’re not saying Go full method but but I was looking up at these gun batteries we were doing something awesome the Normandy Way app was coming out and I was like do you know what no one’s shooting at me no one’s you know what they went through there I’m sure I can run through an Achilles problem and also you realize that that gun battery is set really far back into the countryside yeah it is and it’s still reached still reach you know and you think that’s you know the they are immense yeah they are immen structured and you can get really close to them you can again they have um a great little Museum there they do um so you again you’re just informed as you go yeah exactly that’s actually come up before and I’ve taken people over to you know where various things have happened in history some people that have never been I don’t know if this is part of the barrier that stops people I think they might think it’s like an art gallery where you’re like stuck behind you know a rope and you expected to know before you go yeah a little bit but also you can only go this close and you know be quiet kind of thing tactile this it’s really tactile and the a lot of the bunkers you can just walk into which I found yeah I found that amazing I mean you’re walking into history kind of thing it’s quite quite extraordinary so in we go and you know things are scary turning s we’re turning we’re turning kind of Gent and actually also in your head it’s a turn because you’re going now you’re turning back to W so you are whether you’re if you’re very tired you can get very excited or or you can be Keen to to carry on and learn more you can so we’re now kind of coming into this this kind of Southern hook really um San Mar we’re basically the opposite side of Utah um San marle you will probably know as you’re listening to this you know we’re paratroopers left tenant we’re supposed to be surrounded yeah banded Brothers this is where it happened um there is quite an amazing amount to see um yeah and it’s it’s not a big town it’s not it’s not a big town but it’s the way there the way it’s the way it’s done is just very very very impressive as it is to everyone over there um let’s get you talking about the night because the night was the night running so it really got dark after Samar K yeah do you want to just give people what night running is like because I mean it was it’s the first time I’ve done uh night running and in Normandy what’s again what’s great about Normandy is that um the landscape so it’s farming not a lot of light pollution so it is dark it’s very dark so you know you have your head torch on um we were graced with a really really bad storm it’s a named storm and so it was absolutely blowing a gale it was raining like bad um and that that culmination of pitch black um and if you’re wearing a running top and all you really see is the light in front of you and the the rain is almost a wall so you’re running you don’t have much visibility um and I wasn’t cold um I I just wasn’t C but I was very frightened and for me that first time that first leg I had to I had to call in Calvary so to speak I had I had to call you all back to come and find me which is totally understandable because I have to be honest by that stage for me cuz I ran at sundown then at Sunrise yeah and I don’t remember the beginning of the sunrise run because you do go a little bit I want to say loopy but you go a bit kind of insula yeah the talking gets very little there’s none of this kind of gassing about in the van no it becomes efficient it becomes very efficient and kind of slugging endurance and eating wise you know we were eating kind of cold risoto that we batch made in breakfast bars so you know it’s there’s nothing really but just the task at hand um Liz and Richard amazing through the night dyn dynamos Andy stepped out was running about in the dark with head torches on we did a Handover where I was wearing uh my ski jacket at that stage which is nice to run in it was so wet it was so wet um but yeah you just kind of step after step isn’t it but this but funny enough the southern section is is my I really I really enjoy that section because again it’s Open Fields yeah it’s a Farmland it’s tracks when you can see them yeah um but um you know you get the normal architect farm houses you get the The Cider tasting you do um farms uh the food is fantastic little what do you call it um Farm shops along the way yeah you do and I think it’s it’s it’s it’s true to say that people I’ve spoken to that do like cycling have looked at this and they’re already thinking about all those aspects yeah they’re thinking okay so I arrive the first day I do I’ll do the beaches and I you know but the next day I think I might go for a little little tasting of cavor or that’s you know you can stay in these like wonderful um wonderful hotels along there there there’s still so much to see on that southern section and that’s really almost Norman history as well um you know you have Edward III came through there it’s within the Conqueror territory Y and I yeah I’d like to make the point as well thanks to learning this from from Andrew is D-Day it’s its name is quite deceptive if you don’t know that much about the second war because you think D-Day day ends all over it’s not over at all because you’ve then got to establish then you’ve got to break out and all of that took so much longer than was planned I mean KH which was Operation Goodwood took much much longer but the stories of what happened as you can imagine it wasn’t static it’s not like they stayed on the beaches so they’re moving Inland and we track the stories with them yeah and there’s you know and we have to remember there are civilians who live there so you get the civilian aspect you know in that in those areas um which is which is not something that really people no you don’t think about and on the Western Front particularly because obviously we are we are quite knowledgeable on that most people left most people left the kind of you know the widened battlefields right out to double Reserve lines but here they didn’t no they still because they were unoccupied and the people that were the the people that were there who were living there who was their home they didn’t know dday was happening just they were they were just as unaware so it’s not like they had time to get their stuff together um yeah yeah anyway we’re swinging around into where are we now in the day by uh so uh kown kentown we’ve done yeah and then we’re we’re just running through the night here aren’t we yes we are um and Seri lafet that’s that’s again you’re getting into a territory that’s got um um get more monastic and Norman history yeah you have and I think when you’re kind of coming around to Bayer um it’s important to note that is a beautiful place I would recommend staying in B yeah well also it wasn’t it wasn’t totally annihilated you know it’s got Timber framed houses it’s got the cathedral it’s got the tapestry um you know this so it’s it’s very historic and um yeah I would certainly um recuperate there yeah definitely and I think it’s I mean the way the map looks look at it I mean it’s pretty easy to work out what we why this has been designed how it has because you’ve got wam as your initial base then you can make it all the way along the beach which is loot round to caran then you’ve got Byer then you’ve got KH yeah and you know these are major centers where you can get fed you can get watered you can sort your kit out if you need to yeah yeah yeah good so the sun’s up we’re all happy again we’ve had probably the world’s best Quon and coffee after running through the night um everyone was in quite good spirits I think it’s fair to say yeah I mean especially when you get I think there’s like with anything even if you’re cycling it you get past the halfway point or you’ve only got a quarter left to go by the by sunup we really knew well we you know we did we’ve done the hardest we’ve done the hardest thing um and um you know so we were quite positive in that respect that we were excited to be yeah nearing the end yeah we definitely were we definitely were um and I mean coming around to KH again there is a lot to see which relates more to kind of later the day after D-Day you know what I mean um there’s uh lombe German Cemetery as well the amazing Museum you know the it it’s at which you pass on the tra isn’t it yeah yeah the museum yeah we saw these poor Australians that come all the way over all the way from Australia the museum was closed for them yeah the memorial Deon it’s but that gives you a a a really broad Insight um into what happened there before during and after so it’s well worth a visit and then you go into K itself a university town it’s very young very vibrant um it obviously had uh bore the brunt of of um of of of good yeah so it had to be rebuilt but you have the the castle the Abid um abam you know where where wheni the conquer’s buried when Matilda’s buried so you have these wonderful layers of of history that you can you can spend time yeah you do and I mean Runners wise because I know you’ll be interested to know um we’re all okay we’re we’re pretty tired by now but we’re okay uh end’s in sight um we did something quite clever coming out of K up to wam because everybody is on their last legs we did effectively shotgun starting two or Runners were going at and then the van would sweep them up that’s to cover quickly the of going into more was just too much to Fathom for anyone um you know couldn’t go into another night and our injuries were kind of they were really flaring up by then uh there’s an amazing point at the top which I know a lot of people visit but the Hillman strong point will stick in my mind because you had Liz running up the hill at has to be said Full Tilt she’d already run 70 km um we had our filmmaker great with us uh who was kind of shooting these wonderful long kind of what happens like green field grass effectively it was just a grass field but the Sun up Evening Sun Richard was Sing Off to the left you were down on the front running towards this kind of great end that we’d all been heading for um and we finished exactly where we should have which is exactly where we started 37 and 1/2 hours later 37 and 1/2 hours which is exactly it’s just under 8 km an hour per Runner which is incredibly impressive astonishing isn’t it um and yeah we impromptu you unscripted we all touch the base of the you know Monument of the memorial flame which I thought was lovely yeah we I think it was just to hold us up yeah exactly um by that stage and then uh might surprise you to know might not surprise you to know I we never know who’s listening we’ve got lots and lots of listeners now we don’t know if you are competitive urance athletes or not but it’s it’s not some huge party no one like runs around hugging each other I didn’t find it’s this kind of no to each other which is like we did a good thing well it was really I mean I think you you you build up this wonderful camaraderie when you do something like this and whether even you do it as a pair or a team or even solo you know you come away from something like this and you think right well I’ve really achieved something I’ve trained for it I’ve achieved it it was it was hard but it was also fun and you only really ever remember the good you know the good bits yes sometimes you think God that was really hard but you came through it so it’s a positive experience and I get I you know I I on that I think even even the bad bits become funny I find that I can laugh about the dark running we can laugh about the dark running and we can laugh about the fact that you know the van was kind of you know just it l like a kind of bomb had gone off I I don’t think I’ll ever forget turning up to the van after my kind of night run and everybody was kind of slightly half asleep as though they’ve been some Terri something terrible happened exactly one of them holding a camera um but normally I what we wanted to do is that’s that’s how we did it because we like to test our trails and we like pushing ourselves um because you know a big part of the element of we Trails is that yeah it’s a challenge it’s a challenge go to these amazing places in Earth where where where things happen that change the course of history and push yourself in those places and we have found that’s a sweet spot yeah enjoy it people it yeah yeah I really do but in terms of if you geez do not think that because you’re listening to this we’re expecting you to like go immediately to a Running Shop get your insults done and stop vaselin and running immediately it’s not that this is how we did it if you are if you want to do it in in a slower Pace you can cycle it of course which I’d recommend you you don’t have to cycle it in full like or a racing bike either you can cycle it almost like Mary Poppins you could just Potter along the front a bit yeah see some things have a look on the app have some good coffees take the South you know take a week take it if I if I had the time I would do it for a week yeah I probably would yeah that’s absolutely true because um you want to almost take in some of the museums some of the um some of the beaches um certainly in the southern section um there’s some wonderful manoir that you can you know that you can stay in definitely and learn a bit more about that then like you said the food and wine tasting you know that’s just it’s it is phenomenal there um so yeah definitely take your time but then also be aware that it is part of a CH you know some parts of the trail they do take you up tracks they do you know you might have to sort of get off and walk um but that’s the fun of it that’s why we’ve build these challenges they’re they’re they give you a sense of accomplishment and int ual reward uh but really just fun fun to do solo fun to do with friends over a weekend certainly this one you can do um like you I think there’s quite a lot to learn there as or quite a lot to take on board as well so even if you do have a bit of a push with a bike well when you get to the top there’ll be something to read so you can stop you can ref or it’s really beautiful or it’s really beautiful yeah exactly I think that’s what um so we’ve got you know when wherever you are in June I think you know it’s I think I think this more than most will stop stop certainly Britain and the world and Europe maybe yeah you know I was reading this morning about all the people that are going over for it yeah um but you know this is this is our contribution way to it uh you can do you go do it now you can do it before um I wouldn’t do it during that weekend to be quite busy everything be quite roted off but do it after um and yeah we’ve we’ve we’ve so enjoyed putting this together I think it’s been yeah it’s been really fun it’s been for me it’s been very interesting it’s part of um history that I wasn’t obviously I was aware of but I didn’t know much about but you get there and you have a totally different view of what happened there because massive um hulking things that have been left over the Atlantic Wall is there the museums abundant museums um wonderful people um and great you know if you if you want to be guided along some of these some of these you know get get ask you know get local tourism office seen the other day that you can do it in a um you can do it in like a Willis Jeep a company over there that doesn’t that there you do a helicopter tour fat bikes fat bikes exactly or you can just go and get the way Trails out and do it your own way yeah which I would recommend yeah course good well thank you for joining us and we will see you on the trails yeah thanks see you bye [Music]