The last day of this year's holiday.
The CCP aire at Cayeux sur Mer was really quiet overnight. Even the usual moped with loud expansion chamber was missing from the evening sounds.
Man it was cold. Much colder than Lyons the night before. Then again according to the dash board temp gauge around 14°C in the day barely matched the Alcossebre overnight temps!
So this morning we were up. Used the drains of both grey and clean water tanks. And the cassette. After that the red
light stayed on, even with the minimum water in it so swirl the blue Thetford "tea bag" in. Bit of fiddling and gave up for the time being.
It went out on its own! We had a similar problem earlier in the week with the grey water showing the red light after emptying. That also fixed itself after a few miles.
Max decided to take us to the A16. It's the only toll section I don't mind paying for. I can't stand the 80kph run from Abbeville to Boulogne. It's boring!! He also gave us an ETA of 12.47pm.
Officially we were supposed to be checking in at P&O 90 minutes before out 3pm sailing so plenty of time. Rather than a lunch stop on the way we went straight to the port. Checking in at 12.50pm. Straight through French passports. Only 2 windows open. One car in front, two minutes at most.
Then off to UK Border. Two lanes open. A dozen cars in each queue. A third window opened. Cars from the other queues switched. From there fourteen minutes to get through. At least the guy was friendly and chatted as the checks were done.
We got in lane 1104. Barely time to undo seatbelts and we were loading. Whaat?
The 13.35pm sailing was delayed. It turned out there was a problem when unloading with a truck clipping the side of the off ramp. That benefited us though.
We got loaded straight away. Once on Liberté we went to the pet lounge. Today six people and four dogs... Even though the staff check the tickets, the doors aren't locked even though there is a swipe system fitted. So there are freeloaders spotting the "free" coffee and cans of soft drinks.
Sailing was reset to 2pm. We had a smooth crossing and we were inside the harbour at Dover and off the ship at before 3pm.
There was some traffic on the hill after Western Docks with a broken down lorry being recovered from the left lane and then home. A lorry with two trucks and a van on its low loaded had failed right on the Western Approach roundabout.
It didn't hold us up that much and we were parking on the drive by 3.20pm.
Now to unload the van!!! It seems to take for ages walking backwards and forwards bringing in bag after bag into the house and piling them up in the hall!
One final job though before shutting the Remis blinds and heading in for the lunch of pate and baguette we bought in St Valery.... I had reset Trip B on the drive before we set off and so there was one final photo of this trip to snap!
A fraction under 2275 miles this time. The clock still on French time! So now to see where we will go next year. We will have a few short trips and weekends away before the summer.
The CCP aire at Cayeux sur Mer was really quiet overnight. Even the usual moped with loud expansion chamber was missing from the evening sounds.
Man it was cold. Much colder than Lyons the night before. Then again according to the dash board temp gauge around 14°C in the day barely matched the Alcossebre overnight temps!
So this morning we were up. Used the drains of both grey and clean water tanks. And the cassette. After that the red
light stayed on, even with the minimum water in it so swirl the blue Thetford "tea bag" in. Bit of fiddling and gave up for the time being.It went out on its own! We had a similar problem earlier in the week with the grey water showing the red light after emptying. That also fixed itself after a few miles.
Max decided to take us to the A16. It's the only toll section I don't mind paying for. I can't stand the 80kph run from Abbeville to Boulogne. It's boring!! He also gave us an ETA of 12.47pm.
Officially we were supposed to be checking in at P&O 90 minutes before out 3pm sailing so plenty of time. Rather than a lunch stop on the way we went straight to the port. Checking in at 12.50pm. Straight through French passports. Only 2 windows open. One car in front, two minutes at most.
Then off to UK Border. Two lanes open. A dozen cars in each queue. A third window opened. Cars from the other queues switched. From there fourteen minutes to get through. At least the guy was friendly and chatted as the checks were done.
We got in lane 1104. Barely time to undo seatbelts and we were loading. Whaat?
The 13.35pm sailing was delayed. It turned out there was a problem when unloading with a truck clipping the side of the off ramp. That benefited us though.
We got loaded straight away. Once on Liberté we went to the pet lounge. Today six people and four dogs... Even though the staff check the tickets, the doors aren't locked even though there is a swipe system fitted. So there are freeloaders spotting the "free" coffee and cans of soft drinks.
Sailing was reset to 2pm. We had a smooth crossing and we were inside the harbour at Dover and off the ship at before 3pm.
There was some traffic on the hill after Western Docks with a broken down lorry being recovered from the left lane and then home. A lorry with two trucks and a van on its low loaded had failed right on the Western Approach roundabout.
It didn't hold us up that much and we were parking on the drive by 3.20pm.
Now to unload the van!!! It seems to take for ages walking backwards and forwards bringing in bag after bag into the house and piling them up in the hall!
One final job though before shutting the Remis blinds and heading in for the lunch of pate and baguette we bought in St Valery.... I had reset Trip B on the drive before we set off and so there was one final photo of this trip to snap!
A fraction under 2275 miles this time. The clock still on French time! So now to see where we will go next year. We will have a few short trips and weekends away before the summer.
