The start of our Journey

Tuesday 3rd November[i]

Well the day was finally upon us. We had decided, no doubt over a few drinks, a couple of years ago to get a motorhome and drive around Europe. Now after an absolutely crazy week sorting all the last minute things out, as we had both given up work, here we were heading for Dover. Last night we stayed in a lay-by outside of Dover and now we were sitting in the queue waiting for the ferry. An hour and a half later we were dealing with Calais roads and remembering to drive on the right!

Now before we could actually properly start our journey we had to deal with one major issue that arose when I went to get the Gas bottle changed the day before we set off. After buying a refill bottle a leak was found in the connection, this was coming from the gas regulator. I was informed that the UK didn’t have the type we required for our older German motorhome and that we would be able to pick one up in Europe, so until we got a replacement one we would have no gas for cooking, heating or hot water!

So now we were in France, we drove around and out of Calais in search of a motorhome shop. After a while we came across one and using very poor French with a lot of English words and pointing I managed to establish, in France they only did 30mbr regulators and we required a 50mbr regulator and would have to go to Germany! We decided that we would try somewhere else along route and started heading towards our first stop of Dunkirk. By now it was starting to go dark we decided to try our first Aire (French Motorhome stop) in a small town called Gravelines by the canal, plus it was free which is always a good bonus.