He has already been to Canada, US, Mexico, Morocco, and England. And he'll be adding three more countries during this trip. Belgium today, then Netherlands and Germany.
We had to get up yesterday morning at 3:30am. Silly o'clock!
Our ferry departed at 6:00am, but we had to check in an hour before, and they said to allow an hour and a half to get through the immigration line, although we figured at that early hour it shouldn't be very busy.
And it wasn't very busy, but it still took us some time. You actually do French immigration before you get on the ferry. The pleasant lady stamped our passports with a smile and didn't ask any questions!
Waiting in line at 5:00am.
Max, on board with the rest of the motorhomes.
Cameron headed straight to the arcade with his spending money.
Leaving Dover port just after 6:00am.
It's an hour and a half crossing from Dover to Calais. It cost £73 ($126 CAD, $93 USD) using P&O Ferries. They had an earlier crossing at 3:10am that was a little cheaper, but we've learned before that sometimes we're too cheap for our own good. As it was, the sailing we did was a motorhome special, and about £15 cheaper than the daytime crossing.
It was pretty busy, but not full. Lots of families and children on board.
Arriving in France.
Disembarking the ferry.
Following the other motorhomes.
Because we had already done French immigration control on the Dover side, it was simply a matter of getting off the boat and getting on the highway. There was what looked to be a voluntary customs booth, but it didn't seem like anybody was pulling in there. I think they are so busy looking after truck traffic they don't seem bothered with the passenger vehicles.
And, onto the highway.
Really well organized on the French side. Felt kind of odd to be driving on the right side of the road again! We've been more than three months driving on the left side. Might take a day or two to get used to it, but it felt pretty natural. And, it felt good to be on some normal size roads without much traffic. We like visiting England, but after driving there for the past few weeks, coming over here seems much more relaxing on normal sized roads, and much quieter traffic.
We made our way to a big Carrefour grocery store and bought some beer and wine. Far cheaper here in France than it was in England.
I also spotted a pressure wash place with bays tall enough for Max. Max was overdue for a bath, and I hadn't been able to come across a suitable place to do it in England, but I knew that mainland Europe is much more motorhome friendly. He really needs a good scrub, but at least the pressure wash made him a bit more presentable!
Max, parked near the village of Watten at GPS 50.831444, 2.20831
We found a really nice motorhome aire on the canals near the village of Watten. It was pretty busy, but we got very lucky and there was an end spot open with a view of the water. If we weren't on such a tight schedule we would have spent a couple of days here.
Out for a stroll checking out the area.
Cameron.
Looking back at where Max is parked.
One of the canals.
Notice the nice sky. Perfect weather, with a high of about 23C (73F).
Sitting by the canal and doing some fishing.
What a beautiful day!
This couple were getting married on a boat!
While we were out wandering around, Cameron spotted some kind of a paintball game and wanted to check it out. So we went over to talk to the guy running it, and thankfully he spoke quite good English. Our French is terrible!
Cameron wanted to do it. It's not actually paintball, it's this new gel blaster game. The balls that the gun shoots are small, colorful water-hydrated balls that pop on contact and immediately begin to disintegrate, leaving no stain, no mess and no clean up.
Cool stuff.
But no fun to play alone. Fortunately, three other guys had only just started playing and Cameron was able to join in with them.
Tough to get decent photos because the netting was pretty thick.
He was sure having fun!
It cost €10 ($14.75 CAD, $10.75 USD) for a half hour game, so not bad. He said he had a great time.
We could hear some noise further down the road and we're quite sure what it was. Turned out to be fancy expensive remote control cars, they have a nice hobby track set up and a bunch of guys were racing their cars around the track. Some of them are gas powered, and some are electric. Are they ever fast!
I took a video for you...
And a few still shots...
Fun entertainment to watch them for a few minutes. They sure do crash a lot, but seem to just be able to right themselves sometimes. When one ends up on its roof, another one will come over and try to push it back over. And sometimes they have to physically run over there and do it themselves.
Did I mention it was a beautiful day?
The town of Watten is on the other side of the canal from us.
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How is Cameron doing with the food? I remember the struggles they all had in Morocco with you.
ReplyDeleteCameron is doing just fine with the food but other than one meal out with my aunt and the hamburger that we had for lunch, I have been making all the meals. He didn't have any issues eating the food in Morocco but they did get sick when they were there and we can't say for certain that it was the food that caused it. There are just too many variables to put it down to food.
DeleteMy grandson is into those fancy remote control cars. They are quite pricey. He just sold one for more than I paid for my first car!
ReplyDeleteOh my, they are expensive then, or you didn't pay very much for your first car!
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