Tunnel Sous la Manche to Stella Plage
Zagan the motorhome’s up and left the UK! He’s nestled in among the wonderful dune network just inland from the English Channel (La Manche in French) at Stella Plage, south of Le Touquet Paris-Plage (N50.474385, E1.577494). We’re in the town’s free motorhome aire (fast becoming an all-time favourite), along with another British motorhome, a Belgian one and a couple of French vans. We arrived in the dark last night, and were buffeted all night with the local wind (which presumably built the high dunes alongside us, and now shelter us from it).
Ju and I have a very odd lifestyle. Don’t worry, we know we’re weird. Our lives don’t revolve around raising nippers or building careers, and instead focus on, erm, whatever we feel like doing. This is, of course, rather strange in that we’re in our mid(ish) 40s. In choosing this unusual way of living, we knew it would be an experiment, and we’d need to keep assessing what we were doing as we went along. Even before we ‘pulled the trigger’ though and quit work, we knew a life of endless continual travel wasn’t for us, which is why we ensured we have The Cooler back home, which is a large bedroom attached to our house in the UK where we live while back home.
The Cooler is a relatively small space, but has some definite advantages which make it work well for us. It’s a 5 minute walk from various restaurants and cafes, a Sainsbury and Argos, several pubs, the local leisure centre/gym/swimming pool where our running club meets up, the library, a range of shops and a main bus route which takes about 20 minutes to drop us in the centre of Nottingham. The motorhome storage is a mile away, so we can easily walk up to it to check on the van, do any maintenance (ahem) and so on. All-in-all, it’s a great little place to live, and we have to admit we found it a challenge to get ourselves out of there and back into Zagan.
Every time we come to set off on a new tour, we both struggle to muster the enthusiasm to leave the comforts of home, friends, family and the community we’re a part of. Booking the tunnel or a ferry sets out a fixed point in time, and helps propel us out of our routine and back onto the road. The weeks building up the leaving are never fun, as we realise what we’ll miss at home, and we both quietly dread all the goodbyes in the final days. That’s one reason we’re opting for shorter tours these days, although three months can hardly be described as a ‘short holiday’ for most folks our age.
This time around we finally threw bags and bags of stuff into the van, with Ju checking off against our packing list to make sure nothing significant was missed, like passports or pants. Both of us are fending off the dregs of two-week-old chest colds, and were feeling a tad rubbish as we dropped off Ju’s mum’s car she’d loaned us while we were at home. Once we set off down the A1 heading for Canterbury, a light sensation settled on us, the old uplifting familiar sensation of freedom. With us both being ‘free’ of responsibility even while at home, why should we get this feeling when set loose in the van? Neither of us know, but we’re not complaining.
Canterbury has a low-cost (£3.50 up to midnight, so £7 for an overnight stay) motorhome aire about 2 miles from the city at a park and ride site (N51.26144, E1.10024). The cost includes the bus into town, and we both nipped in Monday morning for a Wetherspoons lunch (get us!), for Ju to buy a couple of tops and for me to buy a book, Hans Rosling’s Factfulness, which is utterly fascinating. Back at the van we (I) faffed about with the water heater which decided to empty half its contents onto the van floor when I took a shower. Panic reined (me, not Ju). We (I) decided it must have frozen despite being drained down, and despite fact I’d changed a plastic valve and this was the first time it had been used since. Closer inspection revealed the valve was leaking (quelle surprise). Cue much swapping of new and old valves until, on the 6th attempt, we (I) managed to get the old valve watertight (possibly – I’m too fearful to have a shower and test it fully). So, after scuffing the knuckles several times and spending a tenner on the new valve, the old one, which leaks a little outside, is firmly back in place.
It’s a quick run from Cantebury to the chunnel terminal at Folkestone, sweeping through the Kent countryside, down narrow roads cut into tunnels of trees. Getting a tad bored waiting, we headed down there an hour early and were popped onto an earlier train without a surcharge, sweet. Having only driven onto the train the once before, I was a tad nervous about screwing it up but of course it went fine, swinging into the large open doorway of the Mad Max like metal sided carriages and slowly edging forwards until a fella appeared to guide us into our park position. As we’re now getting rather old, a flask had already been filled with hot water and the journey was passed in high comfort, supping a brew and reading the fabulous Rosling.
If you haven’t been on the chunnel before, join us as we drive from the
M20 in Kent to the A16 near Calais. Grab yourself a brew and enjoy the 20 minute ride.
Exiting onto the French side is also a moment of edginess for moi, as I attempt not to lose my cool and forget to drive on the right or some such. Again, as usual, no problemo and even on a pitch dark motorway we quickly eased into things and rolled west and then south. The passenger side wing mirror was irritatingly shifting about on the drive south through Blighty, having Ju lean out the window to pull it back into position every five minutes. Thankfully that mirror’s not so important now we’re back on the right, but it needs looking at, again. There’s an allen key underneath which **should** tighten it up, but it’s long siezed. Ho hum.
Once the freebie motorway ends around Bolougne the darkness seemed all the, erm, darker as we headed cross country on the national roads, happy when we finally latched onto a car in front, slightly slower than us. Zagan’s Hymer lights aren’t the brightest and we tend to avoid driving in the dark most of the time, but we were feeling bushed and wanted to get here, a place we really like and can stay for a few days to try and fend off these colds.
So, here we are! Stuff’s generally working, the fridge is cold and full, the Internet’s on speedy 4G, the heating’s keep us toasty, our gadgets are charging on our inverter. The satellite TV system is refusing to see any satellites mind you, which we (Ju) diagnosed this yesterday when she looked at the dish and spotted the LNB arm isn’t dropping into place so is a few cm from the dish surface. No signal is ever going to be detected like that so when have the energy we’ll find a way to get it properly into place. For the moment we’re happily reading and ambling about the beach and the dunes, curtain twitching as new vans arrive or the gendarmes cruise past.
So, what’s the plan? South. That’s about it. Andalusia’s probably on the cards, as it’s about as far south as you can get in Europe and is a rather beautiful part of the continent too. We have a Green Card (insurance) for Morocco, so we could nip over to Africa for a bit too, depending on how we feel. Or we might find ourselves wedged stuck here for three months (doubtful – everything’s shut). Watch this space?
Cheers, Jay
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Glad to see you are back on the road, i will look forward to reading your exploits. Never had a problem with our water heater thank goodness, but i have now found a job that is worse than changing a headlight bulb. We were away for the New Year in Edinburgh and a bolt came out of the pull down bed causing it to collapse passenger side front, we had to come back a day early. If ever it happens to you I now know how to fix it :).
Enjoy your travels
Thanks Andy. If it’s worse than the headlamp it must be a pig! I’ll know who to ask of happens though. Cheers, Jay
Have a great trip and looking forward to reading your posts. We’re heading over in June (have a bunch of Tesco vouchers to convert to tunnel miles!), but will be sticking to France on this trip.
Paul
Hey, France is a pretty fantastic country to tour though eh? Cheers, Jay
Good to see you back on your travels – we spent 2 days at Merlimont Plage (next door to Stella Plage) before Christmas and we didn’t see another person other than a distant dog walker on the beach, It’s like a ghost town in winter but walking the vast empty beaches in a bracing breeze is good for the soul.
Looking forward to reading your updates. Happy and safe travels.
Guy.
Have a good trip Julie and Jay and I look forward to following your adventures. Where do you find these books? Hadn’t heard of Hans Rosling’s Factfulness but I have downloaded to my kindle. Currently reading Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. These books can only help open the mind. All the best Paul
Hi Paul
I love peering randomly though the shelves of Waterstones and spotted this as a result. I’ve seen Hans Rosling’s TED talk some while back and was really taken aback by it (as I should have been). The book is, IMHO, fantastic and well worth the investment. I’m about 2/3 of the way though and every page has me shaking my head about (a) my own level of ignorance about the world and (b) just how much better the world is becoming than I’d ever imagined.
Ju’s just pointed out we have The Power of Now at home but haven’t read it yet. Let us know your thoughts on it if you get chance?
Cheers, Jay
Hi Jay Will give you my thoughts on The Power of Now once I have finished it. Only started it last week, but so far it is thought provoking. All the best Paul
So glad you are back on the road!
I have missed your blog so much – have a good trip!
Great update, thanks. We’re off to Spain in early Feb, sailing to Bilbao then heading towards Alicante. Could I ask, which 4g sim have you gone for and how much does it cost to stay online? I have the mobile hotspot router, just need a sim now. Cheers.
Hi Charles. We’re using a Vodafone 4G 30 day SIM: https://www.vodafone.co.uk/shop/bundles-and-sims/sim-only-data-bundles/. Cheers, Jay
Great update, we’re heading off to Spain, sailing to Bilbao and then heading towards Alicante early Feb. for 3 weeks. Can I ask which sim you use for the 4G? I’ve got my mobile router, just need to get a sim. Thanks.
Hi, disregard my request for info on 4G, I’ve just seen the “how to….” link on your home page, all questions answered! What a resource!
I read Factfulness, by H. Roslings last year and just loved it, in fact I could not put it down. It cheered me up so much to learn that the world is actually getting better…not worse as the news and the media keeps wanting us to believe. I am glad you are off again, looking forward to following your adventures 😄