Tuesday 5 December 2017

5 December 2017 – Bilbao to Home via the Bay of Biscay


(I'm not very good at blogging the end of our trips. On the basis of 'better late than never', I'm finally posting this some 4.5 months after the end of the trip.)

Our trip to Spain at the end of last year ended with us parked up to spend the night in the ferry queue. It’s a common thing to do – there were lanes of motorhomes there overnight and I only saw one more arrive to check in on the morning of the crossing.

I don’t know how everyone else slept, but it wasn’t a disturbance-free night. Bilbao Port is not a quiet place, even after hours.

It was just as we were going to bed (11pm-ish, if my memory serves) that a horn started sounding. The sounding of horns in a collection of motorhomes is common (“Someone’s closing their blinds!” we often exclaim), but this one went on in such a manner that I wondered out loud whether someone was being attacked and were trying to attract attention. It wasn’t anyone close to us, though, so onwards to bed we went. Amongst the other night time disturbances were loud tannoy announcements along the lines of “You are in an unauthorised area, please leave immediately”.

I had heard that Calais migrant issue had been dispersed to places including Bilbao, but assumed that within the dock area (i.e. beyond the gates and fences of the check-in area) it would be safe and secure. Not so, apparently. When we got home I read online that someone in the queue that night had indeed had issues with a migrant repeatedly trying to join them in their motorhome.

Morning came, boarding operations commenced. We were one of the last motorhomes in the queue, and motorhome boarding was paused just before they got to us. For more than an hour we watched everyone boarding around us, wondering when it would be our turn. Right at the end was the answer. We were the third to last vehicle to board. Turned out to be a good thing, as we were almost first off at the other end, exiting Portsmouth Dock before most people had even been allowed down to the car decks.

As for the 23.5 hours between boarding and disembarking: it was fine! We couldn’t have chosen better weather for a crossing of the Bay of Biscay. For much of the time conditions were dead flat with only the view telling us we were at sea. The cabin was fine too – better than expected - even if it was a bit noisy being above the engines (but on the plus side, we were also next to the bar, so could pick up the free wifi from our beds). As an added amusement, we won the quiz too. A quiz that we’d had no intention to enter, but the timing of Mick deciding he fancied a pre-bed pint caused us to be coerced by the Entertainment staff.


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