Remember to Drive on the Right
This morning we were up at the crack of dawn. Well – not quite, but 6.45am is still blooming early to us. We allowed ourselves a cup of tea/coffee before efficiently breaking camp, in order to arrive at the Port of Dover by about 7.30am… ish. On our arrival, we followed the required lanes into the port, joining one of the many queues for Border Control, expecting this to take some considerable time. It didn’t. In turn, vehicles moved up to the kiosks, drivers handed over their passports and were soon on their way. It all happened surprisingly quickly; I swear the bloke in the kiosk didn’t so much as glance at us.
After Border Control, and more lane following, we came to the P&O Check-in. After the swift dispatch by the Border Control Operative, we thought this might be the thing to slow things down. But it didn’t; the lady in our kiosk took our reference number, checked our passports (again) and sent us on our way with a printed tag and instructions to head for lane 197. By a little after 8am, we were the first in Lane 197, with almost an hour and a half to kill before the ferry was due to sail.
We had breakfast and a cup of tea, after which I cleaned the windscreen, which looked like a dead fly graveyard, and applied the headlight deflectors (required by law on UK cars driving in the EU).
Some time around about 9.30am, things started happening, with cars and trucks moving, and being guided onto the ferry, Liberte, a new eco-friendly, hybrid electric vessel only introduced in 2023. Once on board, we found ourselves a seat on the outer deck, where it was dry and sunny but a bit on the windy side. I thought we could play ‘Spot The Migrants’ while looking out to sea (but there were none to be seen), and at one point, a couple of young chaps came up to us and asked me if I was the father of the singer of a band. He didn’t say which band, and I was a bit miffed that I hadn’t been mistaken for the singer instead of his dad – but, of course, the answer was no, I wasn’t.
Eventually we reached Calais, and the long day’s drive began. I find it doesn’t take long to settle into driving on the wrong side of the road. Road islands and crossroads always feel totally weird, though, and quite unnatural. We stopped for lunch and filled up with fuel in France, bought food from a fantastic supermarket in Belgium, and ended the day at ‘Camping Gritt’, in Ingledorf, Luxembourg. Visiting four countries in a day Including starting out in UK) must be something of a record, for us at least.
Let’s talk about the milk thing…
There are many foodstuffs that it is illegal to bring into the EU from non-EU countries (ie. England), including any dairy products, such as milk. I had opened a fresh carton to eat my breakfast cereal with, and was unsure what to do with what was left before getting onto the ferry. What was the worst could happen? We figured if they searched the van and found the milk they would simply confiscate it. They can issue fines, but figured half a carton of milk would be unlikely to result in such a criminal record. In the end, no-one asked to look the van over, and I still have fresh milk for breakfast in the morning.
When we stopped off at the supermarket and stocked up on food, I assumed we would be able to pick up a nice big carton of fresh milk. No such luck. Is the UK the only country in the world to stock their supermarkets and other retail outlets with delicious, cold, fresh milk? In French and Belgium (and Luxembourg too, it would seem… because there is a small shop on the site), the only milk we could find on sale are cartons of that awful UHT stuff. We bought a carton anyway, and I’ll try it but… really… Europe, have a word with yourself…
We’re only here for the one night; tomorrow, we head towards Strasbourg. I must say that, after the idyllic, quiet CL in Dover yesterday, the ‘Camping Gritt’ is almost the polar opposite. It’s situated alongside a river, which is nice, but boy… they don’t half cram everyone in like sardines. It’s the sort of site we’d steer well clear of in the UK – hopefully this isn’t going to be the norm (in fact, we have a very different stop lined up for us in a couple of nights…).
