Blog 1.35: Day 52

November 12th

So that's it then.

For now.

We set the alarm for 6.30am and woke, bleary-eyed, after a not-very-good night (mainly down to the occupants of one particular van who seemed to think it's ok to talk loudly until silly o'clock in the small hours. Bah).

At least it was clear weather, and the sky was starting to lighten slightly at 7.15 as we set off, with fresh croissants and Pain au Chocolat (and boule and biscuits for later) from the boulangerie just behind our parking spot.

Thankfully, being Saturday, the traffic was exceptionally light, and before long we were pulling into the ferry port.

The sea looked calm too, so all was going well at this point.

We were fairly well back in the queue - some people seem to make it their life's work to sit in queues for ridiculously long periods of time. I'd rather have an extra half hour in bed.

It being mid November, there were relatively few vehicles being loaded. Let's face it; what fools would want to travel to the UK at this time of year? Or any time of year, if I'm being honest.

The Brittany Ferries 'Mont St Michel' is a pretty big old tub as far as channel ferries go, and has several vehicle decks, with some differently-configurable height-wise (impressive hydraulic systems enabling that too), but only two were in use, and ours wasn't full.

Heading upstairs, and we found that we had the pick of pretty much anywhere we wanted to sit, and tried three different areas before settling on one. We've never had that luxury before - it's usually quite a scramble. 

Bye, Normandy

The pastries went down well, washed down with coffees M had prepared earlier. Those insulated mugs work very well.

Numpty here had left his Kindle in the van, and with nowt else to read I resigned myself to a few hours of sea views for entertainment.  Ho hum.

Eventually, the Isle of Wight hove into view though, and before we knew it we were docking in Pompey, and back in the van waiting for the ramp to reconnect us with Blighty.

Hello Pompey

That, though, seemed to take an age as the deck below us disgorged its load. Extractor fans on, and we were given the signal to start engines - and wouldn't you know it? Our line was the last to be allowed to move. Typical!

Wait for it...

And it didn't get any better as the customs/passport line we were pointed at was almost full of vans, campers, and motorhomes, and each was fairly thoroughly searched.

And yes, we were the last in that line.

And yes, we were therefore the very last vehicle to leave the ferry port and hit the M27 west and north.

OK, I know I said we were lazy and didn't get to the Ouistreham port particularly early, but, we were there well before last check-in, and there were still a lot a vehicles loaded behind us on our deck. It just all seemed to go against us at Pompey.

Ah well. No doubt it'll be different next time, so no worries.

Our luck did turn though, and the run back up via the A34/M40/A423/Fosse couldn't have been easier, so that's a first as we always seem to have at least one major hold-up somewhere.

That's it for this trip then. All that remains is to give the van a thorough clean inside and out. It deserves it, having not missed a beat.

We also need to work out exact costings over the next few days. It'll be interesting to see how it all breaks down, and, gulp, how much fuel we burned!

Home again

Total miles covered: 3511