After Louverval, we drove to the Lochnagar Crater at La Boisselle. Vast underground explosions marked the start of the Battle of the Somme on 1st July 1916, and this crater still remains. It’s a very understated site, and at the end of a dead-end road. It was around 4:30pm, the deep orange sun was beginning to set in the distance, and it seemed the ideal place to stop for the night. There are distant views from here, and it was bitterly cold outside, but the heating was racked up in here, so we were warm as toast. Paella, courtesy of Lidl, was on the evening’s menu.

The forecast was a low of -2C during the night. When we woke it was -3C outside and thick, thick fog. We kept the heating on all night on a low setting and were very comfortable. Outside even the cobwebs on our underused bikes had frozen. The forecast for the day was a -2C start, rising to 0C by lunchtime and +2C later, which has pretty much been right, but with most of the day at 0C.

Our first visit of the day was the famous Thiepval Memorial for the Battle of the Somme. We’d seen this imposing monument from some miles away yesterday, but in today’s fog, we couldn’t even see it from the car park, or even after going through the reception area. It’s certainly impressive, but in sub-zero temperatures we didn’t linger.