We made an early-ish start and drove slowly to Calais, stopping at Carrefour and Pidout to stock up on wine for the year ahead! We managed to make it to the ferry early, and got put on a ferry an hour ahead of the one we had booked, which was handy as we had calculated the time to get to the Wightlink ferry based on normal driving speed. It was a difficult drive home, as most of our driving so far had avoided hills – the steepest inclines had been getting in and out of tunnels. Most of the drive was at about 45-50 miles per hour, but on some hills we were down to 30 (on 70mph dual carriageways this isn’t much fun) and we had a few incidents of the van cutting out. I suspect the weight of the booze in the back didn’t help! However we made it back in time for our 6pm crossing (nearly made the 5.30 but not quite) and got home ok, for which we were most grateful.
It had been a fantastic trip. We’ve been dreaming of this trip for years, saving for it for almost as many years and planning it properly for about a year. It has been a really great way to (slightly belatedly) celebrate 25 years together. We hope to post a bit more about some aspects of our trip when time permits. I’ll just leave you with a picture of our favourite stop on the trip.
