Friday 4 April 2014

Well that's it. Today is "officially" the last day of our trip although in fact we're going to stay with Terry's mum for the weekend on the way home.

Yesterday was an easy start and a gentle run up the coast to Calais with a visit to Auchan to refill the fuel tank and do some last minute shopping before going round to the Port Aire to overnight. As it was early afternoon it was quiet and we chose a pitch with a nice view and spent the rest of the day firstly sorting out and re-packing then quietly relaxing.

Today our tunnel crossing was booked for 10:50 so we were up and away early enough not to have to rush. Just as well as there was some problem with freight traffic and we had to go the long way round to get to the terminal. Checked in and as we had got our timings right this year, only a short wait before we were actually loaded onto a 15 min earlier departure. The usual smooth crossing before we were decanted out into the English countryside where it was decidedly grey, although quite warm.

Which it stayed most of the way to Navenby with only a sprinkle of rain just north of London. Stopped for lunch at Cambridge - it was definitely tiring getting used to the far far busier roads - and arrived at mums about 3:30pm.

So that's Snow-birding finished for this year and we're already planning our next trip. Meanwhile we'll put together a summary when we get home.

Thanks to all our site visitors and we hope it's not been too boring. Actually we don't care 'cos it's only really been done to keep a record of the journey, supplementing the daily diary we write anyway.

Wednesday 2 April 2014

Yesterday and today have just been “making progress” days.  Although we made an earlier than usual start, there was nobody left on the Egurzon  site when we got up, so we just got on with it and hit the road. Despite our preferences, we decided that using the motorway, non-toll, made more sense so we headed north to Vierzon, intending to get fuel and some bread.

Whether we took the wrong turn-off, or went wrong somewhere else, we spent a frustratingly long time finding the LeClerc hypermarket and lost all the time we’d made up on the motorway. Still, once sorted we got back onto the D roads, now surprisingly busy as we had heard that all non-local heavy traffic must now use the autoroutes. It turned out that part of the autoroute was closed for repairs this week so we just mixed in with the trucks, occasionally “slip-streaming” one to help the fuel consumption!

A late lunch and yet again our destination was quite a stretch, so picked an aire at Nonancourt which turned out to be just off our route and very pleasant, and for a change full of Brits! It had been warm and sunny all day – we saw 27 deg once – and we were both tired so for a change we had an early night.

This morning, we were last away again but in fact earlier than we have been for a long time. Back onto the motorway heading for Calais until we approached Rouen where the Pont Madeleine was still closed. However we’re old hands at this now and took the riverside route via Pont de l’Arche, through the outskirts and up onto the motorway to Calais. Again our thinking was just to get some miles under the wheels as we have been this way several times before and the toll doesn't start until Abbeville.

Skirting the town and picking up the D road, it was lunchtime. The signposts were showing Berck, a nice seaside town so we headed for there to have lunch. Entering the town we spotted an Elephant Bleu, which is a chain of car-wash places and as Bertie was still filthy from the Picos Mountains adventure, we though a quick wash was in order.

With a nice clean shiny van again we headed for the aire – and decided to stay. Got some change for the meter from the chip shop (as well as lunch….) and that was that. We’re only an hour from Calais so tomorrow we’ll take a lazy run up, do our bits and pieces and get parked up early for the Chunnel on Friday. It’s nearly over.