LONDON & BRIGHTONMonday 13th July
It was an early start today, up at just after 6am to have showers, and pack up our camp site, and then drive down to the ferry. After checking into the ferry and getting into the campervan lane, we each packed a small bag for the ferry, and ate some breakfast - one of the nice things about travelling in a campervan. The huge Stena Line ferry (like the Inter-Islander) was loaded and left the harbour on time, at 9am. It was a relatively good crossing, with a mixture of sun and rain on the way over. Lots of wind as well but not too much chop. We had both taken sea sickness tablets beforehand - they did not have any effect on me (I 'fed the fish' off the back of the boat unfortunately), and the tablets made Em very drowsy.
We arrived in Fishguard, Wales at just after 12.30pm, and we were the second vehicle off the boat, at 12.45pm. When we set up our Navman GPS with Twickenham, London as our destination we quickly realised our trip was longer than planned. Instead of the 320km according to Google maps it was 405km! The first hour and a half was slow as it was very undulating (and pretty) countryside. After a couple of hours we made onto motorway which was fantastic. The weather was miserable, lots of wind and rain, so it wasn't the best day to be travelling. The van is tall, and catches the wind like a sail. Eventually we made it, at 7pm, to a nice sunny evening in London. We arrived at Andrew and Sally's place (family friends of Emma's) and parked up our campervan in off street parking. When we went into their house and walked into the kitchen we were greeted by a backyard with a lawn and a riverfront view. It was the river Thames! This part was upriver from London city, so it was a really nice part of the river Thames – much clearer water. That evening we sat outside and ate dinner (Andrew made fantastic Bobotie), caught up on the ten years since Andrew last saw Emma, and had a nice relaxing evening. We also gave Andrew a lesson on how to use Skype on his computer before going to bed.
Tuesday - Wednesday 15th July
After a nice sleep in on Tuesday morning we headed into central London after eating breakfast at Andrew and Sally's house. We arrived mid-morning, and wandered around near St Paul's Cathedral until around 12:30pm, when we met Caf Bear for lunch near her work. It was good to catch up with her, even if it was quite brief over lunch. After lunch Caf went back to work and Em and I went to Covent gardens and tracked down the street full of camping store that we found last time we were in London. We bought a toaster for our gas stove and a few other things as well - we also picked up an umbrella which will be a handy addition to the van.
At about 5pm we headed to South Kensington and met up with Nicola after she finished work. From here we all tubed to James and Julie's house, then we all went out to dinner at Gourmet Burger Kitchen, which is burger chain started by a Kiwi. It was fantastic - great burgers and milk shakes. It was great to catch up with our NZ friends. After dinner Nicola left to visit her sister, and we headed back to James and Julie's for more catching up and discussion of their trip, as they will be joining us for 2 weeks in September in the van. We left there just before 11pm and caught the train back to Andrew and Sally's place to go straight to bed.
On Wednesday we made an early start, and were on the train at just after 8am to go down to Brighton to visit Marion and Greg, friends of my brother Rajesh. We got off at Hassocks, and they picked us up and took us back to their place. Marion and Greg are both teachers, and are living at Greg's school as he is the House Master of the day boarders house. It is a fantastic looking school, with a massive chapel, and a courtyard in the centre enclosed by the stone-walled school on all four sides. It reminded me of the school on 'Dead Poet's Society'. After a tour around school, we did a car tiki-tour of the surrounding area, and then down to Brighton. We had a nice afternoon having a look around Brighton, including the famous Brighton Pier. I am not sure quite what the fuss is. People go to the beach to go to the Pier to play on video games and go on rides. Brighton beach is rocky, and it looks very dangerous to swim at. It was a very windy day, and not the warmest, but still enjoyable. The sea did not look nice for a ferry crossing the next day! At about 4pm Marion and Greg dropped us off at the train station, we said our goodbyes, and were off on the train back to Twickenham. That evening we had a nice dinner with Andrew and Sally, then headed down to their 'local' (The White Swan) for a pint. It was a nice warm evening, so we sat outside which was really nice. At their 'local' you can sit across the road near a tidal river. In a spring tide the jetty, tables, seats, and the road leading to the pub flood, which is a bit of a novelty. We were out of luck in this instance, and stayed dry. Once we were done we strolled back to their place, said our goodbyes, and went off to bed.
Thursday 16th July
We were up relatively early. Em and I headed into the shops around Twickenham to try and find a few bits and pieces that we had on our list to add to the van. We managed to get a couple of things, but nothing too exciting. Importantly we did get cycling helmets, and food. We have one bike already and will be picking up a second in Germany from Dirk and Tina which will be good in and around towns and cities. By the time we finished in town, loaded up the van and left the house it was near to 1pm. We stopped in at a battery shop on the way out to get a secondary battery for the van to run all of the accessories off (fridge, lights, water pump, etc). Well we found the right shop, because that was all they sold - Car batteries. It was brilliant, they were very helpful, and we got what we were after so that was good (but only after the very helpful man earnestly gave us about ninety different options). We drove east from London to Dover. We made good time, and had a good trip. We stopped off the motorway at a 'Road Chef' for a sandwich and also used the free internet on offer which was good. From there we went to Dover to the port where we were scheduled to catch a ferry across to Calais, France. When we arrived at Dover we were greeted with flat seas, sunshine, and the magnificent Dover Castle on one of the white cliffs over the town. It looked spectacular. We decided we would just go straight to the port and it was a decision that paid off. We arrived there at just after 6pm, and checked in for our 9:25pm sailing, but were put on the 7:45pm sailing which was great. We were so happy to get an earlier sailing because it meant we may get to Calais at a reasonable hour. AND we didn't have to pay any extra (the later sailing we booked was half the price of an earlier one!). Our passports were checked as we drove into the port, and we got stamps for entering France.
While we were waiting in the loading queue for the ferry, Em cooked dinner and we ate that in a hurry. Unfortunately the ferry was a bit late and we did not leave until just before 8:30pm, but it didn't matter. The sailing was only 1 hour 20 mins, and we were there before 11pm, accounting for the 1 hour time difference. We drove off the ferry and were very conscious of driving on the right side of the road. Our plan was to find the free car park near the port to sleep at, which was more difficult than we realised. After about half and hour of wrong turns, but no major incidents we found it with the help of a friendly security guard, set up camp and got to bed. Once we settled a fantastic thunder storm rolled in from the sea, with magnificent lightening and thunder, and eventually torrential rain as well. Sven stood strong and we were cosy warm, and hardly felt the wind outside which was nice.
