Day 70: Tuesday 27 May – Dover, by Ken

The UK leg of our trip was almost over, tomorrow we were booked on the 08:25 ferry from Dover to Calais. Today was set aside for final preparations for our foray into Europe.

The weather forecast for the day was poor with morning drizzle giving way to heavy rain later in the day. We decided it would be sensible to fill with fresh water and dump our grey and black waste at the Ashford camping ground before the weather deteriorated, rather than wait until we were in Dover as originally planned.

Mabel and Smarty At Ashford

Topping Up With Fresh Water and Draining Grey Waste

Mabel was all ready for the trip of less than 50km to Dover soon after 09:00. Driving conditions were less than ideal with heavy drizzle and mist but we got to Dover without incident unlike an unfortunate car and caravan. Both were on the verge of a steep hill descending into Dover, the car was facing in the wrong direction and the caravan was matchwood.

In Dover we took the opportunity to fill with diesel and top up the LPG tanks so all we had to do in France tomorrow was drive.

We had arranged to be at the Hawthorne Farm camping ground on the outskirts of Dover to meet someone at 11:00 to have some electronics installed in Mabel. At 11:30 there was no sign of the guy so I phoned Rob in the head office to be told Kieran, the installer, was in Ashford, but would meet me in Dover at 14:00. By 14:45 there was no sign of him and during a further call to Rob the time had changed to 15:30. Rob didn’t take kindly to me telling him I was fed up with his bullshit and I wanted to know exactly when someone was going to turn up. Rob got shitty with me and said it was my fault the man was late because I kept changing my mind regarding the location! That did it, I told Rob to get in touch with the installer and tell me exactly when he would arrive.

I hadn’t actually changed anything. When I placed the order on the internet I requested the work be done p.m. in Dover. The confirmation I received showed 9:00 am in Dover! I had phoned Rob and said if it was to be 9:00 am then it would need to be in Ashford, but he came back with 11:00 in Dover and to be sure not to be late because the installer was busy. It’s difficult to see how that could be my fault, I get the impression Rob is a one man band and not well organised.

I didn’t hear any more from Rob. Kieran called me to say he would be with me about 16:00. He turned up with a mate at 16:30 and moaned for most of the hour he was there saying he had spent the whole day working in the rain.

At Last Kieran Turns Up and Gets to Work 

Between phone calls and missed appointments I visited a large Tesco on the outskirts of Dover to get some more supplies. They included two large pork pies that I knew we wouldn’t be able to get once we left England. In Tesco’s car park a man was loading food into a German registered van from two large shopping trollies stacked high with groceries. Presumably food is expensive in Germany? I also took a trip into Dover to vacuum out the debris that had accumulated in our travels. Lunch was 1/4pork pie with bread cheese and dip.

Dinner was a linguini carbonara with sausage balls and bacon cooked by me.

We were all ready for our trip into Europe. We set the alarm for 05:30 planning to leave the camping ground at 07:00. Jane likes to be early when it comes to catching planes and ferries.