Greenpark Camping, De Panne, Belgium

This was our final push across Europe, with five-plus hours of driving to get us from Nancy to De Panne, just over the border, in Belgium, overlooking the English Channel.

I’d run the diesel right down yesterday, so the first job of the day was to find some fuel. Unfortunately, there wasn’t quite enough in the tank to get us as far as Luxembourg, where fuel is – currently – at its cheapest. In the end, I had to buy a top-up in France; just €35 worth at €2.24 per litre. Once in Luxembourg, I filled the tank right up at €1.89 per litre (which works out at about £1.65 per litre, which is much cheaper than at home).

At lunchtime, we stopped at one of the larger, serviced aires, which – to all intent and purposes, is very much like services back home – to buy some food for dinner. What shocked us slightly was the fact that they were charging €1 to use the toilets! You could, if you wanted, park for up to 9 hours free, though (which you cannot do at a services back home, where you are limited to 2 hours).

Driving was straightforward and painless more or less the whole way… until we got to Brussels, where the ring road traffic was extremely busy and lumbered along at a slow crawl. So, just like being back home in the UK, then.

Our destination was a campsite called Greenpark Camping, in a place called De Panne. The paperwork told us that we should aim to arrive before 6pm, after which reception would be closed. The traffic around Brussels had us a little concerned, though, so Tracey called ahead to let them know that we might be a little late. We needn’t have worried. The chap on the phone said it was okay, and that he’d wait around for us, but then we arrived just before 6pm anyway… so no problem.

Unfortunately, I have to report that the site was quite a bit grubby. It felt old, but the electrics were not reversed polarity; that said, there were a lot of caravans and motorhomes that were clearly parked up there all year round, and were currently unoccupied. Many had windbreaks and structures marking out their territory, all of which just made the place seem a chaotic jumble, and unloved. This was further emphasised when we visited the toilet block, only to find that not only did the loos not have seats, but they also didn’t have any loo paper. After the supreme masterclass in services we’ve experienced in Germany and Switzerland over the past three weeks, this came as something of a shock. We almost certainly won’t be stopping here again.

Before making dinner, we took a walk through the nearby urban areas to the beach. Here we found the beach lined with high apartments, and couldn’t decide if they were mostly residential or holiday lets. There didn’t seem to be many people around. Not that it mattered either way. This is a historic beach, broad and long, and just up the channel from Dunkirk. This was going to be our final night in Europe, so it was just nice to stretch our legs on the beach and enjoy the early evening air before heading back to the van for dinner and an early night. We have to be up relatively early in the morning to drive to Calais and catch the ferry, for the final leg, home.