On New Year's day we handed back the wonderful Brittany house, along with Jess and Jasper, to the owners and set off back to the UK. B&T had arrived home the previous Sunday and it was lovely to have some (socially distanced) company for the last few days. We have absolutely loved our time here and, were it not for the fact that we will be subject to Schengen restrictions in the future, we would have been extremely keen to do more winter sits in Brittany.
We always like to give ourselves enough time to make our crossing dates in case anything goes wrong on the way, so had allowed three days to make our way up to Stella Plage, the aire we use outside Calais.
We drove for six hours on the first day and made our way as far as Bosrobert, a small village I stayed in on the way down in October. We knew the weather was going to be very cold with a risk of ice or snow so chose this spot as the aire is very close to the main route we would be travelling on. Along the way we picked up one or two niggles in Bokkie; the drain under the kitchen sink started leaking and she has also developed a rather annoying engine fault that seems to crop up when you least expect it. Nothing too serious and, apart from the fact that it was icy cold outside, it was perfect travelling weather on the first day.
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| Bokkie (on the right) in Bosrobert |
The next morning we left bright and early as we wanted to get through Rouen before it got too busy. It can be a bit of a nightmare city - we have taken wrong turns twice before and didn't want a repeat on a Saturday morning. Our planning paid off and we were treated to a stunning sunrise as we climbed out to the North of the city.
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| Sunrise near Rouen |
We stopped off in Neufchâtel-en-Bray to do some final French shopping and headed off to Stella Plage. By this time it was drizzling lightly so we drove straight to the aire, had a quick walk around the town and settled in for the night, knowing that we had the next day off.
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| Bokkie on Stella Plage's boardwalk |
On Sunday we popped in to the local filling station to fill Bokkie up with diesel as it is cheaper than in the UK and then parked on the boardwalk for the day. The view is better than in the aire where we are hidden behind the dunes. In the afternoon we hauled out our wellies and took a long walk along the beach.
The next morning we had around an hour and a half to drive so we left at 07:00 to get to the Eurotunnel terminal in good time. We usually choose not to drive in the dark and the rainy conditions made for a rather unpleasant drive.
Once at the terminal we found our train had been cancelled and we had the option to catch either an earlier or later train. We opted for the earlier one and ended up being a little rushed, not helped when the French customs officials asked Toni to prove when she came in to the country! Presumably this was because we originally booked for her to travel across with me but she actually flew in some weeks later. Luckily Toni found the flight booking details on her phone, and we were allowed to proceed. We had a slight mishap with Bokkie when we got distracted by overhead lane signs and I drove over some plastic bollards, pulling off the end of her tailpipe. Luckily not too serious and no other damage was done.
The train crossing was very smooth and we left the EU with the minimum fuss - very sad to be leaving behind the fantastic freedom we had previously to travel freely. We were also very aware we were leaving the safest place in Europe in terms of Covid infections and travelling to 10 days of quarantine followed by tier 4 restrictions. We're not complaining, we've chosen this life and love the freedom it usually offers us.
We still have our flights booked to South Africa later in the month although this is looking extremely unlikely to go ahead as planned.
We're now in Baldock with Charmaine and Shadow and the UK has gone into total lockdown again. It is icy cold outside with the prospect of some snow tomorrow so we've drained down Bokkie to make sure she is ready for the cold temperatures. We'll continue to monitor the situation and make new plans as things change. In the meantime, we hope everyone is keeping safe during these troubled times.
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| Shadow's happy face (we think) |
