As we park up in a motorway Aire for hopefully our final night on our trip (albeit finishing 10 days early than planned), I reflect back on our experience over the last eight plus weeks with a mix of very fond and weird memories. One of the weird ones happened today:
We took the 4 legged kids into a Calais vets earlier for the necessary health checks and passport stamp. It was a surreal experience. Don’t get me wrong, the Vet was great, but talk about paranoia. Because we’d been travelling we were informed by the vet that we had to stay across the other side of the street, and wait for a phone call. We were then instructed to bring one dog across, leave it tied to the railings, the vet would then come out of the building, and take the dog off to be wormed and checked. He would then bring the dog back and attach to the railing, disappear back into the clinic, and the process would start again for the next dog…..
Apparently we were lucky, because French vets have stopped seeing English clients…..
We were going to find a campsite for our final night but they have all closed, and so we drove 10 minutes out of Calais on the A16 to the Aire we are in at the moment.
Driving into Calais earlier, we couldn’t believe the number of lorries queuing for the Euro Tunnel. I guess this is a result of the issues of Strike in the French ports, and Ferries stopping their services.
To finish this trip, with our current emotions is a little difficult for my small brain to process. We are always glad to get home after any trip, to see our 2 legged children and partners, other friends and extended family, but as this trip draws to a premature finale, we will both have feelings of relief when/IF we board the Euro Tunnel train.
A couple we got chatting to earlier were talking of never travelling again….. We aren’t in that camp. We love the new experiences and some challenges along the way, and this is unprecedented, let’s hope we’re done on this type of chaos for a least a few decades.
We have seen some amazing places, ate amazing food, met some really interesting strangers and re-connected with great friends. We have also been heartened by the messages of support and good wishes from friends at home, sending love and good luck messages for the ‘last leg’
Hopefully tomorrows post will be sent from the UK, that we can just about see from our spot this evening – Love to you all, stay safe, keep well and look after each other xx
New day - New Photo challenge 
Hi Neil, It’s great to know that you are getting closer to home. I would learn, with the necessary adaptations, from that paranoic experience. You were blessed these last weeks by being somewhat far from all the fuss caused by this pandemic. Please don’t take it lightly – after all, sorry for bringing this up, you and Denise are in that group of the nicest “old” people. (Ok, now you can tell me to “#$%& off…) Cheers friend!
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Same to you guys and thank you for showing us some stunning places, memories that should keep you going for a long time. Stay safe and well yourselves xxxx
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