Crossing over to France - our EU adventure has begun

The world is a lesser place for now having lost two of my idiocentric left wing raves about mankind and his environs, they have disappeared into the ether and  I'm not inclined to recreate what was another litaery masterpiece.(it's a conspiracy)

Our boat

So we are sitting in our van under the White Cliffs at Dover docks waiting to cross to Calais and hopefully wend our way onto Brugge for the night and probably tomorrow.We're told Brugge is not to miss so will go this way. In honour of this occasion I've been made to shave (this is Bill writing) and S has indeed used our valuable water and washed her hair. This is a big occasion.
Thankfully they have cleared the floating mines from Calais yesterday and things are good to go for our crossing today.

Parked up nice & early waiting to depart

You enter the docks initially thru border control, very low key, just pass your passports through the vehicle  window ,one laconic eyeball and  a curt Merci and your in France so to speak,  then you come into the queueing system,which is shared amongst the shipping lines. Our line DFD Seaways has 2 routes to France and 44 sailings daily.We are in lane 82E. The price is very very cheap. 50 lb for us & the van. This is amazing, best value we've had in a while . The Chunnel was only going to be 100, so it is a competitive route.The Chunnell would be an experience  but not scenic and we do have a stunning day, in fact  the weather is still treating us well though its like an Southland summer, a mixed bag and  still cool in the wind. We have been on the coast for a few days and with the sea breezes it is  still jacket or at best sleeveless jackets.

Finally coming into Calais

We  haven't hardly started on our travels around the UK mainly as we are heading across Europe to Switzerland, to rendezvous with Amanda &Rico, in a weeks time, this doesn't leave much time to mooch around but our trip down through Italy won't wait. Europe is all so accessible from here so we  will not miss anything.
We will return to UK as I've made contact with my Aunt Sue and would like to catch up with her and her two lads we met 35 years ago. Dads side of the family are a bit thin on the ground now  so will take some digging to locate more  but Sue will help with what she knows, I'm sure.
We have been getting around on our new shiny matching bikes. Very ordinary crossover bikes as you would get from our Warehouse. We put them down on a beach to get some photo's and as we rode away noticed S struggling a bit and as for mine, well that bloody seat suddenly needs adjusting ,till we decided  to swap back, sure we will get it worked out. Seems to be the way to get around however.
The beaches in South England seem to be largely flint stone which is a stone i don't  recall from home. The thing with flint is, that it was the choice of stonemason for his necessities as they could knap a  knife edge on this and it is like glass, for warfare its  excellent, and of course with the uncanny ability to spark well when impacted on metal was good for fire and through to all the early fire arms.. This doesn't even touch on the building uses for this versatile stone , it being the material of choice for all building facings from very  early times, since moving out of the sod huts.I have now collected some small fragments to show you all when we get home and give to some (Sam) to spark their firearms. Presently  have only a few Kgs but sure my stone collection will become more solid as we  go on.
The bird life here is a little different with large crows, ravens, vultures, and rooks, all being a little sinister in our books , have not been able to draw much distinction on them yet as some are only found specifically. We are yet to see a vulture but will have the glasses ready next time S sits still long enough or catches up on her suntan. Pigeons are endemic, as we all know, however even away from the built up areas they are abundant and slightly larger, being called wood pigeons and fair game. We had a game pie with our hosts K&O, including venison, rabbit and pigeon breast.

Waiting to disembark looking out to Calais

We departed Dover on time, and had a very smooth crossing to Calais. Should have been a 90 minute crossing, but after 2 hours noticed we were stalling for time at the entrance into Calais. Finally our Captain spoke apologising for the delay, but the Dock workers had decided to go on strike! This had happened after we left Dover!! They obviously don't have to give much notice. We were allowed to dock, but not disembark as there were no staff to help off load the vehicles. Another 2 hours later, we finally were allowed to disembark. Our first experience of the French ways!