France 2003 - David Klyne 
France 2003 - David Klyne 
Isn't funny how work gets to you. Working in retailing I have always worked on a Saturday, it's almost a sacred day, mind you since the advent of open all hours policy this mantra has become somewhat diluted. Normally we have Mondays off which if we were truthful we would not swap for a Saturday. So where is all this nonsense leading to? Well I wish to tell the world that I had Saturday 16th August off, because I worked the previous Monday, so there!
So what did I do to make the most of my sacred time, well at least after I had taken Margaret to work! Get the caravan ready for the holiday. New Gaz bottle, wash the caravan, get it out of the garden and onto the road. Well surely I had to get it out of the garden before I could actually go on holiday. Absolutely right but not easy to achieve. We live on an estate of 35 houses which are grouped around three cul-de-sacs. We are on a corner with access to our garage and Garden at the back of the house. Pat our previous neighbour, who lived on her own and kept her car on her drive, and was a lady of a certain age decided that she would much prefer to go and live back in Wales. I did not mention Anne Robinson! She was replaced by an older couple with two sons in their mid thirties, is there no hope! Obviously they have to park their vehicles somewhere but this has turned a quite easy exercise into a difficult one. Why? Well they don't seem to be overly approachable and I have this uneasy feeling I might not get the response I would expect if I asked them to move their cars . So when we go away on holiday or just for the weekend this is a worry in the back of our minds. Anyway an opportunity arose so I took it. No cars, so my car moved and the caravan quickly connected to the car, the parking place was won!!
Simon picked Margaret up from work just after 1.00pm and after some lunch we were heading down the M1 by 2.30pm. Traffic OK but from time to time it seemed to grind to a halt but fortunately only briefly. Same thing on the M25 but nothing serious. Is it my imagination but do caravans feel more stable when they have more in them? Just over 3 hours, including a comfort break, from MK to Black Horse Farm near Folkestone.
A little bit of de-ja-vu as this is the site from which we started our ten week trip last year. I was intrigued by the notice outside the office when we arrived. There was a message for Mr Blair. You know, I had no idea he was a member of the Caravan Club!
Up bright and early on Sunday morning in order to catch 8.15am ferry. The Docks are only a 20 minute drive from Black Horse Farm and in fact we got there in time to be whisked onto the earlier ferry. You imagine that all ferries in mid August would be full to the gunwales but the Pride of Canterbury was comfortable. Perhaps it was lack of school parties and day trippers that made the difference. I was also surprised at some of the offers in the 'Duty Free' 3 boxes of wine for the price of two and one offer I really like but was frowned on that I should take part in was buy two bottles of Courvoisier and get the second one at half price, perhaps on the way back!
