Wednesday 23 May 2018 - Day 80
Change of plan! We’re parked up at Cite Europe in Calais, just a few minutes from the Eurotunnel terminal. We’ve moved our crossing forward to 0650 tomorrow morning.
We woke to a grey, windy day, cool at 10’C, although the forecast over the coming days was improving and warming up. We drove about an hour up the coast to an aire we’d stayed at before, but on arrival it looked a bit bleak and uninviting, so we decided to drive on. To make it worse the van grounded on the way out - a horrible crunching sound. Reversing off I checked underneath and the securing bolts on the electric step had caught the top of the steep exit. It sounded bad, but luckily the damage was minimal and the step’s still working. So we drove to the other end and exited via the one way entry sign! Instead we moved on the aire at St Valery en Caux. Again, we’ve stayed on this one before. It’s right next to the harbour entrance, by a stony beach and under a high chalk cliff. The weather wasn’t great and although we ventured out for a walk, we were soon back in the warm of the van!
The afternoon was spent snoozing and reading and I had a thought that we were just marking time, making our way up the coast to cross over next Wednesday. We’d seen the forecast of great weather back home, so we made a decision to amend the booking. This only took a few minutes and didn’t cost a great deal more and we were soon packed up and back on the road for the three hour drive to Calais. The alarm’s set for 0500 tomorrow and we’ll make a flask of tea before switching off the gas, so we can have a hot drink on the train.
So our three month journey has ended one week early, but we're really happy with the decision and really looking forward to getting home tomorrow. I’ll post a retrospective on our trip another time, with some costings for those that are interested in the numbers. Until then, Anglesey here we come!