How many ferries have we used in a half century of European road trips? Many hundreds, I guess. We have suffered delays and cancellations but only once missed the boat entirely, sometime in the mid-eighties when I miscalculated how long it would take to drive from the Loire to Cherbourg. Today I suffered goof number two. I have spent the entire trip absolutely convinced that we were booked on the mid-afternoon ferry from Dieppe to Newhaven departing at four in the afternoon on Monday 16th. It was only when we parked up in Auchun around noon to do a spot of last minute shopping That I checked the e-ticket on my phone and noticed that the return trip was booked for the 15th, yesterday!
What made this especially irritating is that we had driven past the port yesterday on the way to the quayside aire de camping and passed the ferry we were meant to be on, so we were in Dieppe when it departed without us.
It was a costly mistake. We headed for the port, explained our error, the booking clerk confirmed that there was space on the next ferry and charged us £136 to amend the ticket. Ouch. I have finally got over beating myself up about it, and stopped threatening to emblazon the rear end of the van with the strap line, 'Living the Dream, Mr Bean and the beautiful Gill on tour!' I have reached a more beatific state, asserting, 'Oh well, shit happens, it's only money....'
Or even seeing the upside - we are definitely going to be first to board -
Otherwise the last couple of days have been uneventful, a tad uncomfortable given our viral condition, but, to quote the astonishingly talented Bill Bailey, 'Not bad, all things considered.'
Ever on the lookout for handy places to stop on the way north Gill found a free aire on Searchforsites at Nonancourt. It was positively reviewed, no one mentioned the tight entrance, the very narrow parking bays on a slope. There are only five spaces, one was free, we decided to move on to the Camping car park in Evreux.
It's situated close to the city centre which means dealing with the foibles of French urban driving where a deadly cocktail of nonchalance, competitiveness and inattention conspires to shred the nerves of more conservatively minded Anglo Saxons.
Still, we arrived at the Aire unscathed. It too had a narrow entrance, and with only eight bays in total was quite a tight squeeze too. It had ehu, so that was a bonus.
It was Saturday, we anticipated a noisy night, but in the event it was peaceful. I am not sure we will use the place again. Too much hassle to get to it - motorhomes in cities - not a relaxing combination.
So here we are, through immigration and customs at Dieppe port. The immigration guys strived to look macho in their hi-vis and military style pants tucked into boots. They were taking their jobs seriously. One guy checked the rear garage and waved a wand around me to make sure I wasn't concealing a Kalashnikov under my tee shirt. His sidekick peered in all the cupboards inside the van, then poked around in the bin. It mainly contained used tissues. They failed to catch any migrants but they probably caught COVID.
It's been an odd trip, not one of our classics. Too many health niggles, a bit of misfortune here and there. Small issues though, we agreed as we scrolled through our news apps. A human disaster has unfolded in Israel and Gaza over the past week. I was reminded of some lines from Auden's 'A Summer Night', written in 1933, but somewhat prescient given what unfolded next in Spain, then the rest of Europe and the Far East over the next two decades.
Soon, soon, through dykes of our content
The crumpling flood will force a rent
And, taller than a tree,
Hold sudden death before our eyes
Let's hope sanity and humanity prevails. In moments of peril all we want to do is hold those we love ever closer. A haunting line from a song by "Everything but the Girl' also spilled through my mind:
'Kiss me as the world decays..."
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