Where's Bertie? He's at a designated motorhome parking area at Audinghen (exact location: 50.85258, 1.61243)
Weather: dry. Bit breezy on arrival in France.
A lot of time has been invested over the last few weeks in looking at prices and availability of ferries to Spain, combined with looking at length at long range shipping forecasts, finally coming to the conclusion that, as a hater of ferries, I was only prepared to commit to spending 24+ hours on a ferry if I could see the weather forecast first. That's a bit of a problem as the ferries from Portsmouth to Spain tend to fill up early. I did come across some late availability (presumably cancellations, as they came and went), but the only option that coincided with this week's weather window involved a reclining seat in a communal area rather than a cabin. No chance!
A ferry to Spain would have reduced a 1600-mile drive to just 350 miles, but we didn't want to delay any longer, so the tunnel it was. Yes, it's a long drive, but even taking fuel into account, it's also hundreds of pounds cheaper.
Late booking = more expensive prices on the Tunnel, which guided our choice to travel late in the evening. As expected, on check in we got transferred (for free) to an earlier (advertised as much more expensive) crossing. It wasn't busy, making us ponder the commercial sense of EuroTunnel's pricing policy.
Even with the earlier crossing, it was dark by the time we arrived in France. Twenty minutes later we pulled into the Aire at Wissant for our third stay there this year ... except we didn't stay, because it was full*. That was somewhat unexpected on a Wednesday night in October!
It was only 6.5km down the coast to Audinghen, where we found the 7 motorhome/bus bays to be empty - along with the rest of the car park. It wasn't until we were just going to bed at 11pm that another vehicle pulled in - an enormous bus of a thing, towing a car.
(* When I say full I mean that no more motorhomes could fit. If people had parked more considerately, particularly the two vans taking up a whole row of spaces by parking across them, then half a dozen more vans would have been accommodated.)
Weather: dry. Bit breezy on arrival in France.
A lot of time has been invested over the last few weeks in looking at prices and availability of ferries to Spain, combined with looking at length at long range shipping forecasts, finally coming to the conclusion that, as a hater of ferries, I was only prepared to commit to spending 24+ hours on a ferry if I could see the weather forecast first. That's a bit of a problem as the ferries from Portsmouth to Spain tend to fill up early. I did come across some late availability (presumably cancellations, as they came and went), but the only option that coincided with this week's weather window involved a reclining seat in a communal area rather than a cabin. No chance!
A ferry to Spain would have reduced a 1600-mile drive to just 350 miles, but we didn't want to delay any longer, so the tunnel it was. Yes, it's a long drive, but even taking fuel into account, it's also hundreds of pounds cheaper.
Late booking = more expensive prices on the Tunnel, which guided our choice to travel late in the evening. As expected, on check in we got transferred (for free) to an earlier (advertised as much more expensive) crossing. It wasn't busy, making us ponder the commercial sense of EuroTunnel's pricing policy.
Even with the earlier crossing, it was dark by the time we arrived in France. Twenty minutes later we pulled into the Aire at Wissant for our third stay there this year ... except we didn't stay, because it was full*. That was somewhat unexpected on a Wednesday night in October!
It was only 6.5km down the coast to Audinghen, where we found the 7 motorhome/bus bays to be empty - along with the rest of the car park. It wasn't until we were just going to bed at 11pm that another vehicle pulled in - an enormous bus of a thing, towing a car.
(* When I say full I mean that no more motorhomes could fit. If people had parked more considerately, particularly the two vans taking up a whole row of spaces by parking across them, then half a dozen more vans would have been accommodated.)
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