En-route, part 1.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009 @ 9:57 AM
So far so good, currently sitting on the Transmanche Ferry awaiting departure for the choppy waters beyond the harbour walls. It's 22:45 so I have about 15 minutes still to wait and there is no net connection available so no idea when this will actually get posted. Departed Tamariu Friday in the pouring rain and was soaked through to the skin just loading our personal belongings but as we hit La Jonquera the rain had become snow and we started the long trek north through ice and snow all the way up through France. On the toll roads the snow ploughs and gritters had worked wonders but venture off the tolls or into a service station and the surface became lethal as could be seen by the amount of tyre tracks leaving the road into the nearest field and back to the road again a little further along the way. Arrival in Dieppe was 15 hours later and we tried for some sleep before the outbound sailing but a temperature of -10 degrees in the cab, frozen windows, frozen drinks and frozen sandwiches made it impossible and extremely uncomfortable and we were glad for the eventual opening of the check in so we could drive through only to get stopped by a bunch of 5 customs officers who proceeded to raid the back of the van, unstack all the boxes and open every one they could or cut holes in the sides and rip apart all the others. I know they are entitled to do that and I do say on our website to leave boxes unsealed for inspection but I think the approach that night was heavy handed and I think it is lucky nothing was broken in the boxes as they threw them around and climbed on them in their bovver-boots. It's now 23:00 and bang on time we are moving away from the dock. Anyway, once on board a good cosy few hours sleep was had and on the other side a quick drive past Stone Henge took us to the first collection in Dorset only half an hour after the arranged time. Shortly afterwards we arrived at Sparkford Storage for delivery of the goods ransacked by French customs, again perfectly within the estimated arrival time of between 4 & 5pm - Well 3 minutes within actually, it was 4:57!! The rest of the day was totally wasted thanks to the new Garmin GPS not having the faintest idea how to get from A to B without having to go via the rest of the alphabet so the overnight stop in Nottingham saw arrival at 23:00. This GPS is worse than the other, I can safely say it does not know its a*se from its elbow. Suday was a trip up to Keswick for a collection, again the weather was appalling but everything went well though yet again we had a late arrival for overnight in Tamworth. Not much rest so far on this journey, I can't wait to just put my feet up somewhere and relax for a few hours.