Sonny's damaged awning and the Croatian toilet block! |
We
left Darlington on Friday 27January, had a weekend stopover in Stamford to see
my 2 brothers and their family then we were on our way once again on Monday morning.
With
the weather being wet and windy we opted for the channel tunnel rather than the
ferry and booked our Eurotunnel ticket for Tuesday morning, 9:20am. so spent
the night on the Aire at Dover, Marina Parade (N51.12350 E1.31710).
The Aire at Dover |
There
are no facilities here but it's fairly quiet and comfortable. Being a cold night (2°C) we put the gas heating on, however
it decided not to work! Mel did a quick
check of our Gaslow tanks and worked out that having had the habitation check
last month they hadn’t been opened up fully.
PHEW, problem resolved and we had heating! Like last year, I am sure we are going to
encounter some more of these little problems along the way but the main thing is
trying to figure out the problem calmly.
It’s
only a 20 minute drive to Folkestone, so alarm set for 7.30am, we were up
washed, dressed, fed and watered and on our way by 8.20am. Leaving Dover, parked up all along the road
to the ferry port were lots of French lorries.
Mel said he had read something about a strike in France over something
that would affect lorry drivers – the French seem to love a strike!
Getting
the Eurotunnel is a very quick and easy way to get across to France and
relaxing too as you can just sit in the comfort of the motorhome enjoying a cuppa!
All aboard the Eurotunnel! |
Thirty five minutes later we are in France! It
was 3°C and sunny leaving Folkestone and when we arrived in Calais it was still sunny
and 10°C – so that was a bonus. First
stop was the Carrefour, which is just a couple of kilometres from the
Eurotunnel. Once stocked up with delicious bread, cheese, wine, cakes and
some other necessities we were on our way.
We were in no hurry but for ease took the motorway most of the way, it was so quiet and on
some parts we were the only vehicle on the road.
A deserted motorway heading south from Calais |
A
bit of a boring stretch but was made easier by getting out the quiz book to
pass the time and keep those little grey cells working!
We parked up for the night on an Aire at Le Sap (N48.89525 E0.33249) about 30kms
south of Rouen. It’s a free Aire beside
a little lake that includes water, waste disposal and electric – thank you France!
Not
only that we didn’t have to level off using our ramps as it was perfectly level
front, back and sides!
Parked
up next to us were another Brit couple from Scotland, who were heading down to
Spain and around Portugal for 3 months to get away from the wet and cold winter
of the UK. This seems the norm for a lot of people with motorhomes these days.
Our little motorhome spirit level showing that we are perfectly level |
They
set off early this morning, but we had a lazy one and finally hit the road just
before noon. It was raining by this time and didn’t let up all afternoon, so we
decided to do a short stretch to a place called Arnage, just past Le Mans.
It's a small free Aire by the side of the River Sarthe that only takes 2 motorhomes, with free drinking water and toilet and waste disposal. Our neighbours for the night are a French couple in a camper
van. There would be a picture, but it is raining ‘cats and dogs’ so I will
hopefully take one in the morning and post it on the next blog!
Sally
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