Wednesday 15th June 2022

Another nice sunny day. We headed back towards our house in Devon. We stopped for a cup of tea at a service area on the A303 next to this nasty privatised litter bin which wasn't even full but still had litter dropped next to it. It somehow symbolised to me how squalid our country has become after years of cutbacks in public services.

Nearby was another bin in a similar state. I just couldn't resist picking up the litter around each bin and binning it. I just felt so lost and pathetic in the face of of the disintegration of our society encouraged and enabled by our wicked and corrupt government. During our travels in continental Europe we had passed through innumerable communities who collectively looked after and had a pride in their environments in such a contrast to what we see around us here.

We arrived back at our house around lunchtime. Here's our first view of our new garden fence which was built while we were away. It's far more in keeping than the rather suburban style fence it replaces.

We set about unpacking the van.

The lawn has grown quite long but nothing to what it would have been had not our good neighbour Steve cut it for us while we were away.

I'll probably get the lawn mower out tomorrow if it doesn't rain.

Today we travelled 126 miles (203 Kilometres).

Our journey lasted 56 days visiting France (3 times),  Italy (3 times), Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

We travelled 3591 miles (6108 kilometres), excluding the ferry crossings from Poole (England) to Cherbourg (France) and Calais (France) to Dover (England).

Thanks to anyone who took an interest in our travels.

That's all for now, Roger.

Tuesday 14th June 2022

This morning Kerry took us out for breakfast to her local greasy spoon café which was very nice indeed.

Not really the sort of picture you'd expect in a greasy spoon joint.

We said goodbye to Kerry, Gareth and Henry and headed for home. We had planned to break our journey by eating out and staying overnight at this communally owned pub near Andover but when we arrived we found out it's closed on Tuesdays!

After trying another pub and finding it locked and its phone on the answering machine we managed on the third try to find a pub that was open to stay the night at. This is The Lion just west of Andover,

It's been a beautiful hot sunny day.

We went for a meal in the pub.

Ann had fish and chips followed by Eton Mess,

I had pasta with chili, garlic and prawns with samphire and parmesan on top followed by sticky toffee pudding.

Here's the view from the side door of our van in the pub car park as the sun went down this evening.

Today we travelled 134 miles (216 kilometres). We are at: N51.2371 W1.5458

Near Andover   Street View - The Pub used to be called the Red Lion

Monday 13th June 2022

This morning we headed to the Port of Calais and after topping up our diesel tank we went through the high fences surrounding the Port and British Immigration Control.

Here we are lined up and ready to board the 11.15 Irish Ferries service to Dover.

We were soon on our way passing another Irish Ferries ship going in the opposite direction. I bought a couple of coffees and croissants to fortify us on our journey which cost £12.90 - there is definitely a cost of living crisis on Irish Ferries.

Before long we arrived in Dover and were on our way. It felt a bit strange driving on the left again after so long driving on the right.

We made the shortish journey to Ann's daughter Kerry's house in Kent where we are staying tonight.

Kerry's husband Gareth was hard at work when we arrived.

Kerry and Gareth have a cat.....

....and a dog.

Kerry and Gareth gave us a marvellous welcome and great hospitality. Their son Henry joined in.

Today we travelled 61 miles (98 kilometres) excluding the distance we travelled on the ferry from Calais to Dover.

Sunday 12th June 2022

After leaving the aire this morning we stopped to buy some groceries and top up our diesel tank however after we came out of the supermarket and tried to get some diesel the automatic card machine refused to give us any! From then on we had quite a difficult journey as our sat nav was playing up big time! We had set it to avoid motorways and toll roads but it kept trying to put us onto the A26 toll motorway. We ended up going round in circles trying to navigate north west and avoid going onto the motorway. We stopped for a cup of tea at this robot food shop.

Having finally persuaded our sat nav to keep us off the A26 it had great difficulty getting us over this canal. Firstly it tried to take us over a bridge with a 2 metre height barrier.....

......then it tried to take us over this bridge.......

......finally it found a bridge we could actually cross the canal on!

We stopped for the day at Oye Plage which is on the French coast between Dunkerque and Calais.

There is a nature reserve here.

There are a couple of hides from which you can watch the wildlife.

I saw this swallow in a hide.

There is some impressive WW2 archaeology here.

There is a very nice boardwalk through the dunes.

Here's some even more impressive WW2 archaeology!

There are some cows in the field next to our parking place.

We are authorised to park here.

Apart from ours there are three other vans here this evening. 

Today we travelled 85 miles (137 kilometres). We are at: N50.9971 E2.0550

Oye Plage    Street View

 

Saturday 11th June 2022

Today we headed north west again stopping for water at the aire at Le Cateau and again for a cup of tea next to these very noisy refrigerated lorries.

We had planned to stop for the day at the aire at Grenay but when we got there we found all the spaces already taken by other vans and when we tried to get our sat nav to navigate us to the nearby aire at Lens it said the route was impossible!!!

Our sat nav did however agree to navigate us to this nice park at Maisnil Les Ruitz a few kilometres west of Lens. We parked in amongst the Saturday afternoon crowds.

This is a former mining area and spoil tips are visible all around.

I didn't feel altogether happy about staying overnight in the public parking area so we moved to the nearby aire which is also part of the park. It costs 10 euros 80 to stay here for 24 hours but as that includes electricity and water it's not too bad a deal.

Today we travelled 80 miles (129 kilometres). We are at: N50.4415 E2.5733

Maisnil Les Ruitz  

Friday 10th June 2022

Today we travelled north west through interminable enormous arable fields and frequent arrays of wind generators.

We stopped for a cup of tea in a nice layby where birds were singing in the trees.

Here are the trees the birds were singing in.

We stopped for the day at the town of Le Nouvion en Thierache where we visited a supermarket before parking at the Aire de Camping Car seen here. It is free to stay here but if you want any water or electricity you need to purchase a token from the municipal campsite next door for 4 euros 50!

Just behind the Aire there is a chateau. It doesn't look as if visitors are welcome.

In front of the Aire there is a lake.

Swimming is not allowed.

The lake is set in a large park where there is some public art.

We walked around the lake. You can see the municipal campsite on the other side and the Aire to the right of it with our van and a Netherlands registered van to each side.

The lake is frequented by numerous ducks.

The campsite looks quite crowded. Back at the Aire 3 more vans have arrived this evening so all 5 parking spaces are filled.

To day we travelled 75 miles (121 kilometres). We are at: N50.0058 E3.7812

Le Nouvion en Theirache    Street View