Day 71: Wednesday 28 May – Farewell England, Bonjour France

We were both awake early, it must have been the anticipation of heading over to the continent today.

It was a cool, grey damp morning but at least the heavy drizzle and rain of yesterday had stopped and I was able to fit Mabel’s headlight deflectors so that they dip to the right and not dazzle oncoming drivers on the continent.

We showered and then got Mabel ready for the road, something we are becoming a lot quicker at with practice. We are also developing our own vocabulary and the last operation is usually to ‘de-cheese”. Two years ago when Phil Kerry and the girls joined us in France his motorhome came equipped with plastic wedges used to level the vehicle in camping grounds by driving the appropriate wheels onto the wedges. His wedges were bright yellow and soon became known as ‘cheeses’. Our wedges are grey and have three steps, but we still refer to them as cheese.

Mabel Cheesed

Some great organisation by us both had us pulling out of the Hawthorn Farm camping ground exactly at 07:00 as planned. It was just a short drive into Dover and the ferry terminal. The drive-through P and O Ferries check in was very efficient, I was greeted by name without saying anything – each check in has a camera trained on the vehicle’s number plate. We were offered the 07:35 ferry instead of the 08:25 we had booked which we readily accepted and drove to Lane 212 to await boarding. We hadn’t been there long when a marshaller appeared from in front of the truck parked next to us and slowly walked towards us with a bemused expression on his face. I wound down my window and he said he was surprised as he looked Mabel and Smarty up and down. I thought the surprise was there was something wrong with our booking. It wasn’t, the surprise was that we weren’t there a few minutes ago when he checked Lane 212 and boarding for the 07:35 sailing was now closed! It appears the check in operator had been a bit optimistic in getting us on the 07:35 and we would have to take the 08:25.

Being Rebooked On The 08:25

Boarding the Pride of Ken went well in spite of having a tricky hill start after stopping on the ramp. In spite of the sea resembling a mill pond Jane was concerned about sea sickness so on the recommendation of the assistant in the on board shop she bought some bands that apparently work on pressure points and avoid queasiness. We shared a breakfast from the café on board (actually I ate most of it). I tried to phone Three to cancel our mobile agreement with them, but by the time they opened for business at 09:00 we were half way across the English Channel and out of cell coverage! I would have to use email once I had wi-fi again. I cursed Rob and Kieran for their poor performance yesterday that left me in this position (I needed to keep the UK number to enable Rob and Kieran to contact me and by the time Kieran had finished and I phoned Three, they had closed for business for the day).

Sea Sickness Bands

White Cliffs Of Dover

The English Channel was like a millpond so Jane's bands weren't really put to the test. We have more and longer ferry trips ahead. Jane didn't trust the bands and revisited the ship's shop and bought pills. We disembarked in Calais at 10:45 (time in France is an hour ahead of the UK) and headed south down the E15 Autoroute. Our memories of our early days of driving in France 2 years ago were that we were very nervous and a bit overwhelmed in dealing with the automated toll booths on the autoroutes. This time round it all seemed familiar although it took a while at our first encounter with a toll booth to find the ticket which emeges from one of a number of slots according to the height of the vehicle. We found that the high slot designed for trucks is too high for Mabel and the low slot for cars is too low.

Peage (French Toll Plaza)

 I drove the first 140km before we stopped for lunch (1/4 pork pie, bread, cheese and fruit) at the Aire de Baralle south of Arras. Jane took over from there before swapping back again for me to do the ‘landing’ at our camping ground. We followed some of the same route taken on our first day in France in 2012 Then, we tried to economise by avoiding the toll charges on autoroutes. That approach wasn’t altogether successful finding ourselves in Belgium and ending up on an autoroute in any case. This time we had further to travel and opted for the ease of the autoroutes with their frequent aires where we could pull off when we wanted to. We travelled mainly through farming country and through the champagne region around Rheims without seeing a single vine. We were extremely pleased with Mabel’s performance on our first long run of the trip. She is very quiet and purrs along at our chosen cruising speed of 90kph. When required, she has a good reserve of power to accelerate and overtake slower moving trucks.

Unlike Myrtle We Can't Use Mabel's Reversing Camera To Keep An Eye On Smarty

When We Are On The Move. We Rely On Catching Glimpses Of Her Shadow

In The Mirrors To Know All Is Well

Roadside Sign Near Rheims

We arrived at our camping ground a bit after 17:00 - Camping LesTerres Rouge, in Clereey, just outside Troyes. There I was greeted at the gate by an elderly man who had no English. I was able to recover enough French from my memory banks to ascertain that we could stay for the night and I should drive through the barrier which he raised for me and on to reception inside the grounds. The woman at reception didn’t speak English either, but we were able to sort out the essentials:

            Deux personnes,

Electrique

Wi-fi

Tokens for ‘la douche’

A pitch near the facilities

The camping ground was ideal, quiet with just one tent pitched some way from us, and adjacent to lakes which I believe are disused gravel pits.

Dinner was the second instalment of the sausage and cannelini beans.

Parked For The Night At Clerey

Drinkies By The Lake

Todays Trip - 421km