Dunkerque/Calais/Dover/London

Dunkerque/Calais/Dover

We hit the road from Brugge around 10.45pm bound for Dunkerque. The plan was to catch the 4am ferry to Dover. This meant that with the time difference we would get back into the UK at 5am and after the 2 1/2 hour drive back into London, we would get back into Wimbledon at 8am, pick up some stuff out of storage at 8.30am, and the arrive at the London campsite at 10.30am. It also meant that we would get about 3 hours sleep before we had to board the ferry. Unforetunately things didn’t got as planned.....

We arrived at Dunkerque at around 11.30pm and headed straight for the ticket booth. We assumed that seeing we would be boarding a ferry at 4am that we would have no issues getting a spot...after all that is how it worked when we left the UK 12 weeks prior. When we got the counter we found out all the ferries were booked and the next available was at 10am the next day. We decided that this wouldn’t suit what we had planned and head 30 minutes down the coast to Calais Port. This was a much bigger and busier Port that Dunkerque and we had our fingers crossed that they would have a spot on a ferry that suited our plans slightly better. Luckily they did, the 4.15 am ferry....Unluckily it was 3 time the price of the Dunkerque ferry....So, after paying €180 we were going back to the UK.

We set up the beds for a quick power nap and then boarded the ferry at 3.15am. (after being grilled by boarder security).

We all attempted to get a bit more sleep once on the ferry but i think were all to glad, amd in a way sad, that we had made it around Europe. The official reading on the Navman was 10464.4 kms. (check out that top speed!!!). This was reset on the ferry coming over from Dover 12 weeks earlier and the photo was taken on the ferry back. So this was the European total. To be completely accurate you would need to add 140 kms for the trip from Wimbledon to Dover at the start and another 140kms for the trip back from Dover to Wimbledon. So nearly 11000kms over 12 weeks (20 days of which Sarsha was resting at Rome Airport). Not a bad effort for the old girl.

So at around 5.30am Sarsha’s wheels touched down on UK bitumen. From the ferry it was only the drive back to Wimbledon left....and after re adjusting to driving on the left hand side of the road, Jake had the relentless task of taking us home on minimal sleep.
We did a few chores and then headed straight for the campsite in London for very deserved rest!