Dover (by Rach)

Calais to Dover

Well we got to the ferry port miles too early. Miles is definitely not the right measurement but you know what I mean. Customs stopped us to search the van. The guy was amazed ‘I sought zis was just ‘orrible van but is beautiful!’ Thanks bab, appreciate it.

We found a place to park and I sauntered off to find us some food. I am after all, the hunter gatherer in this relationship. I popped into the ferry office to ask about possibly getting an earlier boat. “I vill need your boarding number” “Oh ok, but is it something that’s possible to do or…” “I need your number!!” “Oh um, ok. Is the um, is the restaurant upstairs open?” “IS CLOSED”. It was at that point I just ran away. 

On the bright side, I did realise that you can ‘toast’ bread in a dry frying pan, every day is a school day when you live in a van. Anyhoo, I ended up speaking to an actual helpful person and she got us on an earlier ferry.  I felt so bloody nervous about driving on the left again after 7 months, I actually felt a bit sick.

At this point (end of Feb) Coronavirus was not a major ting. However, I did feel nervous on the ferry, being so close to so many people from god knows where. That’s not a racist comment by the way. I just don’t trust or like anyone that isn’t from England. At least 4 generations back.

We arrived in Dover and my legs were shaking as I drove us off the ferry. Sean had found us a car park to stay in, god he’s a romantic. We went and got fish and chips (I mean, what else!) but it wasn’t as good as the one at the top of our road in Brum – big up Egghill Fish Bar Crew!

The very next day

My Dad was driving down to meet us, he wasn’t sure if he was going to bring my Nan because she was ‘at risk’ if she got Coronavirus. Honestly she can be so selfish.

I made sure me and Sean got up at 9am as my Dad would arrive at 10am and I wanted the van tidy in advance. We were sat with a cup of tea at 10am and I said to Sean, ooh Dad’ll be here soon! He said well it’s only 9am? I’d been working on French time hadn’t I. Fucking idiot. It then took my Dad an extra hour to find us – did you know that Dover is just multiple one way streets? Did you also know that middle aged men refuse to just bloody stop and wait there? Well you do now. But they found us in the end – he did bring Nanny Di as well!

My Dad bless him, had multiple jobs to do on his visit. He replaced our radio speakers in the van, he replaced our inverter and fixed our leaky boiler. What a lad. My Nan did nothing of course. Didn’t even bother bringing a toolkit can you believe. To be fair, she did give us a pack of chocolate digestives so I do still love her.

I ordered replacement foam for our sofa/bed cushions as the foam we originally had was so hard it was giving me a bad back. Luckily the upholsterer was based in Dover so we just went and swapped it then headed straight to the MOT centre. Now I felt as sick about the MOT as I had about driving on the left. After 7 months of non-stop travel I was sure there would be a £2k+ bill waiting for us. When we got the call from the mechanic saying that Higgins had passed his MOT I genuinely nearly cried with relief. We were elated. We went and picked up the van and then went for dinner, said farewell to Nanny Di and my Dad and then went to watch Parasite at the Cinema. A day packed full of jam I’m sure you’ll agree. 

The day after all the jam packing

Well a bit of a shit day really. I realised the foam I’d ordered was 2cm too thin. So the covers no longer fit beautifully. They fit baggily. I was fuming with myself, Sean was fuming with myself and the weather was vile. We topped it off by watching The Trials of Gabriel Fernandez. A documentary so utterly devastating I spent the following day bursting into tears. I cheered myself up by going to Morrisons up the road and stocking up on Lurpak. 

Viva le France!

We went for a full English this morning, Sean was in his element. We took an earlier ferry than planned from Dover to Dunkirk. Sean spent the whole crossing with his head on a table – he was full of sea sickness/fry up. Shame, I was hoping to spend those hours getting to know each other a bit. 

I was relieved to be driving back on the right side of the road, though the wind was blasting the van all over the place. It’s weird, it almost feels like we’re hitting reset on our whole trip right now. It feels exciting! Almost as exciting as the wind and rain that battered the van all evening. There was one point where I thought Higgins was literally going to lift off the ground.

Sean found us an amazing spot to park – FREE ELECTRIC!! We’ve never had free electric before! There was a supermarket just 2 minutes away too, fantastic. I nipped to the supermarket to pick up some ingredients, a young guy leaned out of his car and dropped some rubbish on the floor. I picked it up, went to his window and said “Do you want this or shall I put it in the bin for you?” He begrudgingly took the plastic from my hand and I walked away laughing to myself, I’ve never seen a teenager look so livid. And that really was the moment that I realised I’m a proper grown up.

Recommended park up 1 hour south of Calais (free services - water/electricity etc):

http://park4night.com/lieu/31499/