Saturday 15th February

I hadn’t been able to get an early Shuttle as it was half term, so we had plenty of time to get showered, dressed, breakfasted, tumble dry the towels, affix the headlamp stickers, strap on the orange warning triangle to the bike rack, go across the road to the Post Office to get a few more Euros …………….. except that when you’ve got a lot of time it disappears and we had to miss out the Euros.

Our Eurotunnel Le Shuttle departure was – Check in Folkestone – 10.30 a.m.; Depart Folkestone 11.50; Arrive Calais 13.25

We went inside the terminal building in Folkestone which was jammed with families, kids, schools going skiing I imagine. We had to queue for coffee and there were no seats!

Because of the late train over we had the choice of a site only 20 miles from Calais or a much longer journey which would mean arriving in the dark, so I had chosen the closer site, adding to a long journey the following day. To fill the time we visited La Couple – a huge bunker, built in 1943-1944 as a base for launching the V2 rockets against London. Randomly, it had a moon landing craft outside.

Making our way to our overnight site, the rain had begun in earnest. JW was not impressed with the site – it was a field behind a hotel, we were the only people there and it was raining …….. a lot! We tried 3 pitches before deciding on one that we thought was sort of level. The one upside was that it appeared that Michael Jackson was staying in the hotel – spitting image (well, from a distance!).

However, the people were very friendly and the restaurant served excellent fare, saving any cooking. In the morning the one large toilet/shower room turned out to be warm and efficient. JW still didn’t like it though!! 😂

The wind and rain that night, caused by Storm Dennis, was probably the worst I’ve ever experienced in the motorhome; the whole motorhome was rocking around, the sound was deafening, it was pretty hard to sleep! I was nervous about heading down the French motorway the next day in a high-sided vehicle, which made trying to sleep even worse.

Then at 1.30 a.m. a thud INSIDE the motorhome – JW had stacked it up the step to the lounge trying to plug in his iPhone in the dark!! 😱 🤣

Hotel Camping Bal, Tournehem-sur-la-Hem (Region Hauts-de-France; Department Pas-de-Calais) – https://www.caravanclub.co.uk/overseas/france/nord-pas-de-calais/camping-bal/

Mileage – Folkestone to Tournehem-sur-la-Hem (via La Couple) = 58 miles