Thursday 26th March - somewhere under the sea.
We left home last night at about 9.30pm to drive overnight to Folkestone for an early Chunnel. We were booked on the 7.20am but arrived early, despite a couple of detours through the Kent countryside due to motorway closures, and we've ended up on the 6.20am. The plan was to get a couple of hours sleep at the euro tunnel terminal but that didn't happen. Screeching seagulls, vehicle noise and too much coffee on the way down. So here we are, several metres under the sea bed, halfway to la belle France. We've planned our first stop to be at an Aire in Arras which is/was a fortified town with a gothic style town hall and subterranean passages however I think sleep is a priority before any sightseeing. I thought I'd start the blog off underwater because we are sat next to this sign -
Regrettably this is not the case, all phones/pads show "no service" so my first submariner blog will have to wait till dry land to be posted.
It's many years since I drove overnight in the UK and I was amazed at the number of HGV vehicles parked up in the lay-bys all the way down the A1. Nearly every lay-by was full as were the services near Grantham. We stopped again at Thurrock services before crossing the Thames and the place was absolutely rammed with HGVs. All the car parks were full and lorries were parked all along the roadways. Perhaps anyone reading this who does a bit of night time driving can explain.
Arras. N50.294618 E2.788113
We were going to push on a bit further south but after I started nodding off on the A25 decided that we'd better stop and get some shuteye. It's bitterly cold and damp here but that didn't prevent us sleeping for five hours and I would like to say we awoke refreshed; unfortunately that's not the case. I don't think I would do this journey the same way again. I'm not going to be able to tell you very much, if anything, about Arras. We are parked about a ten minute walk from the town centre but I doubt we'll be doing any further investigations today. This part of France is not the most picturesque and the ride from Calais would not have had much to recommend it other than an interesting encounter at a rest stop near Dunkerque. The guy driving the big rig parked next to us asked if we were on holiday and I said yes but a long holiday, maybe three or four months and told him of our plans. He was pleased we were going to Greece as that was his homeland, he lived in Thessaloniki and had just returned from the UK and was waiting for his boss to phone him to tell him where his next load was coming from. He said the ferry from Ancona to Igoumenitsa was ok but we should have booked on the superfast. I mentioned that as long as the voyage wasn't anything like the one we had a month ago through the Bay of Biscay I would be happy! Then he told us his story. He was on the Norman Atlantic sailing from Patras to Ancona on the 28th December last year. The ship caught fire in the Adriatic and at least 28 people perished. Our friend was in a small dinghy for four hours before he was rescued by a passing container ship. He injured his back and shoulder clambering on to the ship and subsequently spent two months in hospital. He still has nightmares about the incident. He had no wages whilst he was ill and his wife and children suffered hardship as well. He has been told he can expect compensation from the ferry company but the investigation is still ongoing. A very sad story. He wished us well and hoped we enjoyed our travels in his country. You can read more about this tragedy here: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Norman_Atlantic
Pat
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