Finally Setting Out on the Big Adventure

We spent over a week at Ridge Farm caravan site, in Steep near Petersfield which included the Diamond Jubilee holiday weekend. We had a very busy time catching up with family and friends, some not seen for quite a number of years. We had a really good time and thank everyone one we saw for making it all so enjoyable.

Kennet & Avon Canal - Bradford on Avon

After Petersfield Harvey had to have a service and a couple of jobs done so was booked into Gold RV at Alton. We spent a couple of nights over at Poole with our friends, Kay and Kevin while this was happening and picked Harvey up again on the Wednesday lunchtime. It was then off to Marsh Farm near Trowbridge for a couple of weeks. The site was just a short distance from the Kennet & Avon canal so we cycled down the towpath into Bradford on Avon, which was about four miles away, a couple of times and had some walks along it also.

Knowing we were going to be in Trowbridge for a while we had arranged to meet up with an old colleague of mine and his wife in the local pub. Pub was a bit of a dive but it was great to see Norman and Carole again.

When we left Marsh Farm it was to go to an RAF reunion in Weston-super-Mare for ex-members (and one serving member) of 12 Signals Unit in Cyprus. This was celebrated by having a Meze in a Greek restaurant. It was good to meet up with people I had known well and not seen for years and I'm looking forward to next years bash. Hope it will be in Cyprus.

From Weston it was back to Alton to get a job done that had had to be postponed and an overnight stop in the car park of Gold RV, then on to Deal in Kent. The day of the ferry was fast approaching.

In the queue at Dover

A few nights were spent at Deal, about forty minutes from Dover, to say cheerio to Emma, Charlie and Jon and also Dave and Debbie. Then on Monday at 10:00 it was off to join the queues waiting to board the ferry. Watching the artic's going up the ramp and dragging their rear ends gave us a bit of trepidation but when our turn came we were directed to the lowest deck so it was a fairly flat run in. The crossing was very uneventful as was the disembarkation and I remembered to drive on the left leaving the docks. Tricia managed not to be seasick!

Tricia on the Ferry

Aire de Service - Le Crotoy

The next step was a short run down the coast to an Aire at Le Crotoy which was right on the estuary and very spacious. As we were out of LPG we decided to stay two nights here and spend Tuesday searching for a service station. One was found quite quickly on the A28 just south of Abbeville which would do the job. so we returned to Le Crotoy and spent the afternoon looking round the town. It has a nice beach and a quaint steam railway link to Noyelles sur Mer and Ault.

Steam Train at Le Crotoy

We liked Le Crotoy even though it was a bit touristy.

Relaxing with a beer at Le Crotoy

Thankfully our LPG adapter worked and we managed to fill the gas tanks and then make good time down the A28 as far as Rouen. Circumnavigating Rouen had been thought to be a bit of a nightmare but, despite not heeding Tricia's instructions, we managed to get onto the A13 and turn onto the N138 without any bother. The Aire for the night was at St Pierre-Des-Nids, south west of Alencon, and it was full of road mending materials and plant. However, we managed to unhitch the trailer and park the van, and headed into the town for a beer/wine. After chatting to one of the elderly locals, who recounted her war experiences and told us how happy everyone had been to see the English liberators, we popped into a little bar for a drink. Tricia managed to practice her French on the lady tending the bar and another of the locals.

Aire de Service - Saint-Pierre Des Nids

The following morning, awakened by the road crew arriving, the car was hitched up and we headed for Poitiers via Le Mans and Tours, arriving at where the Aire should have been at Jaunay Clan only to find it blocked off. A place to park was found in an out-of-town shopping centre's unused overspill car park. Luckily the 2.2m height barrier had been left open, and we walked over to the bar in the centre to get directions. The young chap tending bar explained how to get to the Aire de Futurscope, which would have been our next choice and we found this with no problem. The Aire was inside the Furturscope theme park and the ticket barrier was a bit of a tight squeeze both in width and height but once inside there was plenty of space for us to turn round and park with the trailer still hitched up. The tariff was only 2 Euros but the down side was that we had to be out by 08:00.We returned to the bar and thanked the bartender for his help.

The port from the Aire de Service - Mortagne-sur-Gironde

Up at 06:30 and ready to roll by 07:30, back onto the N10 and onwards to Angouleme, Cognac and Pons before striking out on the D6, a yellow road, for Mortagne-sur-Gironde. I had decided to approach the port from the east to avoid having to negotiate the town and the steep winding road down to the harbour so we turned onto the D730 for a short way and then onto the D245, which turned out to be a single track road. Luckily we only met one other vehicle coming the other way and managed to pass without any trouble. Unfortunately, after following the winding road for some two or three kilometers I took a wrong turn in Mageloup and ended up heading into Mortagne from possibly an even worse direction than the one I was trying to avoid. There were a few heart stopping moments as we drove up a very narrow street with cars parked partly on the pavement and partly on the road. Having negotiated that, though, it was a fairly easy run down the hill to the port.

The Bastille Day Brocante (Car Boot Sale) - Mortagne-sur-Gironde

One of our neighbours, the Storks

Saturday was Bastille Day and there is a fair on the approach to the Aire and there were stalls all along the road where we are parked so it was fortunate we arrived when we did and won't be leaving for a while.