We purposely thought that getting the 0430 ferry out of Dover was a good idea at some point in the past, but it didn’t feel that way when we pulled into Dover in the dark looking for a park-up that was behind the police station of all places. Let no one say I dont know how to treat Jackie. We must have got about 3 hours sleep before it was time to get up and off to the port. Dover is particularly beautiful at this time in the day, especially the area just behind the police station.
Booking in and boarding the ferry went by in a sleep deprived haze, only waking up to being on a desolate, post-apocalyptic boat in the middle of the channel. There was hardly anyone on board, with all the walk ways and lounges eerily deserted.
The highlight of the sailing was however a significant one in our household…Barefoot Californian red wine at £17.50 a case! That’s bloody less that £3 a bottle for one of our favourite wines. Now as much as we were appreciative of this offer- it did make our blood boil when we consider the tax that the government charge on alcohol. Rarely now can you get this wine for less than £6 a bottle- that’s a hell of a tax charge going straight into the government coffers.
After surviving the potential zombie apocalypse, we arrived at Calais, yet another beautiful sight at any time of the day or night, but particularly at 6am! Most of France seemed to be heading north at the end of the summer holidays, whilst we headed south. It was a really odd feeling knowing that we had three weeks ahead of us, when normally we would be revving up for work. We planned to eat up 450miles on that first day, but it was tough going after only 3 hours sleep. The roads we fantastic, almost too fantastic. No road works or delays meant constantly cruising at 70mph on empty roads, with junctions only coming up every 100km or so. By 2pm I was barely holding it together, so we decided to do a very vanlife thing- we pulled over into a picnic Aire, got out the bed and went to sleep for a couple of hours. What a revaluation! I felt like a new driver and we started off again with a new lease of life.
Very unlike our last European adventure, which we planned within an inch of its life, we had no plans apart from heading south towards Geneva. When we felt we had had enough, we scoured the All the Aires book and picked a spot for the night…and what a spot. We headed to an aire in Bourg-en-Bress that was right next to the Royal Monastery. We were the only VW on the site, but Nelson held is own with all the euro white boxes. What we hadn’t counted on was the rowdy locals on a Saturday night- not the usual boy racer types, but the local aged population that came out for an evening birthday picnic under the backdrop of the floodlit monastery- very civilised and so nice to see.
The following morning, we had a wander through the sleepy town centre that had not really woken up by 10am, took far too many photos and picked up some fresh baguette for the day. Visiting the french bakers is torture in itself-we could both eat everything in the shop, and then some more.
We headed off for Thonon les Bains on the shores of Lake Geneva, having decided that we fancied a few days at the lake before heading into the mountains. The drive there was like coming home. I am so happy in the mountains and I could not contain my excitement as we made our way through the Jura Alps- Jackie must have thought that I had lost the plot! As we got closer, the SatNav gave us the option of a no-toll option- which we obviously took as we are cheap-skate retirees now! The route however found us in Switzerland for a good 20 minutes- border control? What border control!
We used our ASCI card for the first time ever- a discount camping card for out of season use. Jackie found a cracking site on the lake for €18 a night (inc electricity!).
We spent the afternoon by the lake, swimming and sunbathing, followed by the most amazing hot showers- after 3 nights of wild camping we were minging- which made the showers even better! Sunset over the lake was particularly impressive- as was our choice of wine for the night. It was a classic retiree affair of a 1.5L carton of white Spanish wine for €1.99- get it cold enough and it is good enough.
The following morning was a slow start- no thanks to the quality wine consumed the night before! Jackie had a great lie-in and I went out and about trying to force the YouTube habit by videoing around the campsite before anyone was up and about to witness my awkwardness! With a cooler morning forecast given, we headed out on the bikes to discover what the shoreline had to offer. We cycled through cute little villages, chic waterfront towns and vineyards by the dozen- little does the Chablis wine region know about the threat from cheap cartons of Spanish wine!
After a lazy lunch, we crashed at the beach and surprisingly heard some British voices for the first time in a while. By 4.30 we were well and truly cooked and retired to the van for cold beers, hot showers and home cooked pizza from the van.
We had lots to plan, as we had no idea at this point where we were going next, we just knew that we were going to the mountains.
Next up…we head into the mountains- somewhere south of Lake Geneva. Check out part 5 of our summer adventures here.
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