As our tunnel crossing was not until early afternoon we had a lazy start to the day and did not leave the Canterbury park and ride until well after ten. We drove along the A28 towards the big Sainsbury store in Ashford for a bit of diesel and some provisions for lunch. The Kent countryside looked lovely. As we trundled along we speculated that W H Auden may have got it wrong about limestone landscapes, for us at least, the image of 'a perfect love or the life to come' would definitely have to be the comely and humane rolling landscape of chalk hills. It is our favourite landscape, at least in England. If it was our favourite landscape in the world we probably would not keep dashing off towards the Mediterranean.
We had planned to have a lunch stop somewhere on the coast near Hythe, but we could not find a car park without height barriers anywhere, and the Romney Marsh visitor centre which we have used before was packed. In the end, it was bread, ham and cheese in the Euro-tunnel car park. The upshot was that we got on an earlier train, it would seem le Shuttle is running to schedule today.
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| Lunch in Folkestone Eurotunnel car-park...sometimes needs must. |
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| Join the queue... |
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| France here we come.. |
We had been a little anxious about that the situation at the tunnel might be a bit tricky. In the end it was wholly uneventful. That being said there were some signs of the extraordinary times we are living through. Heading down the M20 two police style vans sporting the usual black and white chequered stripe on the side and back passed us. They were not police, however, but badged 'Immigration Enforcement'. It was bad enough when the Civil Servants of the Immigration Service were renamed 'Border Force'. The new name sounds truly sinister. It would be worrying but for the case that such re-branding has as much to do with ineffectual Governments' pathetic attempts to con the public into they are taking robust action by changing signs, as any real swing to the right. In truth it may be that the kinds of mass migration we are experiencing is simply beyond any government's capacity to shape events, and all we can do is react to a series of crises.
Hundreds of lorries were queued up in the freight lane as we approached the Folkestone terminal, the aftermath of incursions into the tunnel over the weekend. In the Folkestone terminal a few young British Asian men with hi-res jackets sporting the logo of the Islamic Charity 'Mountain of Mercy' stood about, presumably on the way to assist in the outrageously named 'Jungle'. When we arrived in Calais, there were no refugees to be seen, just a couple of bored looking French policemen at an interchange holding automatic weapons. Miles of razor wire separate the railway tracks and work raise a 6 metre high security fence around the perimeter carries on apace. The tunnel may have been peaceful as we passed through, but come nightfall I suspect it is a desperate place.
I can't see any of this being resolved in the near future. Balancing humanity with security, and the growth of little Englander opinion at home with the need for an international humanitarian response is a real challenge. We have chosen 'interesting times' to travel towards the Eastern Mediterranean, I hope we won't come to regret it.
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| The end to a perfect day... Lille at rush-hour - Vive Le Bouchon! |
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