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Henley-on-Thames, Caravan Club - Four Oaks Site, Continued
Saturday we have to collect our hire car.
The hire company have sent a taxi to collect us, at their expense. I am only paying £45 to hire the car for 2 days, and they pay for a taxi to come 8 miles to pick us up. I am not sure I understand the economics of that!
The taxi is alarmingly late. It turns out, the taxi driver, is a law student, working as a taxi driver to pay his way through college. He is most apologetic for being late, and tells us this is his first pick up in Henley, and he had gone to the wrong caravan site.
He is thoroughly entertaining, and my concern at being late soon evaporates.
We collect the car no problem. But finding our way out of reading with no sat-nav is not easy. How on earth we will find our way back to hand the car in, remains to me seen!
We spend the evening with Gary, Susana, Gabriel, the god parents, and family.
Our return journey is somewhat fraught.
It took us 30 minutes to get to Windsor.
On the return trip, they have closed the A404M for overnight roadworks.
Kathleen has to read the map in the dark. We have a one hour tour of the countryside (in the dark) around Henley, but eventually we find the site.
Sunday, it is back to Windsor for the Christening.
Although the weather is not kind, we have a thoroughly enjoyable day.
Gabriel and the other children there, are impeccably behaved, and all goes smoothly.
Gabriel's Mexican godparents execute their role perfectly, even being called upon to do the readings in English, does not put them off their stride.
It is a barbeque afterwards at Windsor racecourse, thankfully, given that it rains none stop, they are prepared for the British weather, and the proceedings are in a Marquee, out of the rain.
We had intended to stay at Henley-on-Thames until Tuesday morning, but Monday dawns grey and wet. So we decide that after returning the hire car, we will go home.
Our concern at finding our way through the traffic snarled Reading prove groundless, with the help of Google Maps, we get there with only one minor hiccup, (for the record, I was right, it was the first exit off A329M to Oxford Road, not the second).
If you want to hire a car, based on this experience, I can recommend Enterprise Car Hire, only £45 for two days, including damage waiver, and they picked us up and dropped us off, back at the site, all included in the £45!
So back home again, where to next time?
Neufchatel-en-Bray, Camping Sainte Claire, ASCI2011-974 continued
Forgot to say, in my last post, I have had some adverse comments about the font size. Some people wanting me to pay for new glasses for them. So, I have reverted to the "normal" size font!
Hope that is better for you all.
Despite her concerns for her waistline, I convince Kathleen we should buy an apple pie from Le Clerc. They are on offer, are rather large, and look very appertising!
We buy a can of disappearing cream, to go with it.
I call it disappearing cream, because after you squirt it on your plate, it disappears faster than you can eat it!
Sunset at camping Sainte Claire.
As I have said before, this site is in within 2 – 3 hours driving distance from the ferry at Calais or Dunkirk.
However, our ferry is at 08:00 in the morning, and check in time is 07:00. This would mean leaving here at no later than 05:00 in the morning, which is not possible (Gates are closed overnight, 23:00 – 07:00).
Instead we leave just before 12:00, do some last minute wine shopping at the supermarket, and then rejoin the A16 toward Abbeville, stopping for lunch on the way.
We plan to check out upto four aires, from the All the Aires – France book, (Hondschoote, Gravelines and, Bergues, Petit Fort Phillippe) and choose the best one.
As it turned out, Gravelines is the first one we come to and it is perfectly acceptable, so we park there.
Beware if trying to find it, they have built an new roundabout on the D940, which is not mentioned in the directions, but if you keep your eyes open, you can see the campervans lined up on the quayside, so just head for them. You need to be on the East side of the small river.
Gravelines, All the Aires – France Page 450, N50 59.310’ E002 07.363’
As you can see, we are not alone, I have not counted them, but there must be at least fifty vans here, presumably all waiting to go to the ferry terminal.
We have actually overflowed the 'official' parking area. We, along with three others, are parked in an area marked "no parking camping cars". The painted lettering is faded, and hardly ledgible.
Two passing Frenchmen point out to us that we should not be parked there. One is grumpy about it, the other, on hearing we plan to be gone by 06:30 in the morning, is more amenable about it.
We get a spot overlooking the habour, this is the view from our back window.
Actually manoevering into place caused a bit of a problem.
My reversing camera (Kathleen) took fright as we approached the edge of the dock backwards.
There was a mutiny and she deserted her post, continuing the directions from outside the van, just incase I went into the dock.
We have a metre to spare, no problem.
Once we had finished parking, and Kathleen had composed herself, we discovered we had parked next to someone from Seaham, who just happened to be a patient at the surgery where Dana used to work!, small world and all that.
Sunset at Gravelines.
The evening passes without any excitement, except that, even more vans arrive.
After a quiet night, and therefore a good nights sleep, we are up at 6:00 and on our way by 06:30, to check in for the ferry.
Despite eating my usual breakfast of Cereal and fruit, while we sat in the queue waiting to board, we avail ourselves of a full English Breakfast on the boat.
The usual nightmare journey, on the M25, and we arrive at Henley-on-Thames.
Henley-on-Thames, Caravan Club - Four Oaks Site.
As is always with the Caravan Club sites, it is spot on.
The afternoon is spent in arranging a hire car, so we can travel to Windsor tomorrow and Sunday.
