It was lucky that we came across from Europe early as the day after our ferry crossing a storm swept down the strait for two days and the seas became so rough that the ferries stopped sailing. It cleared on Saturday and we headed back down to Dover and spent the day looking around the Dover Castle and its secret tunnels.
We spent a few days with Kent's family in Broadstairs then with our friends Fran and John in Walderslade. During this time we had to get rid of any extra stuff we had gathered in the last six months for our travels in the car and also our sleeping stuff and some clothing. We managed to fine it all down and get within our 23kg each checked bag limit. Along with this we each carry a laptop bag and a carry-on bag. We sold our lovely car to Kent's cousin Tammy and delivered it to her home.
On Thursday we headed for London and Sian's flat (Sian is the daughter of Carols NZ friend Maxine). It was great to see her again and we swapped wine for a yummy lasagna and slept well. The weather was cold but not icy like we had experienced on our last day in Paris. Nice to think we are heading for warm weather in Hong Kong (where we will stay with Carol's brother Roger) and Brisbane (where we will stay with her daughter Corrin).
Friday morning we caught the train to Heathrow as opposed to the tube, the train station is right next to Sians apartment so we didn't have to go far with our gear. The night before it had seemed like miles walking from the tube to her place though it's not that far - we seem to have lost all our backpacking muscles while doing our 'soft' traveling in the car!
After heading for the wrong terminal we checked in ok and boarded our Qantas non A380 jet for Hong Kong.
