Journey: Canterbury – Dover – Calais – Du Platier D’Oye Nature Reserve – Gravelines – Dunkirk
Today’s wisdom: Fate sometimes delivers a better option
Paws and feet have landed in France! The ferry crossing was a dream and doggies were so brave. We played a fun card game suitably called Itchy Feet and Mark confessed he has had a strange feeling he is leaving his whole life behind, he going to miss gigs, Greenpeace and his kids (typical me has booked in friends and hobbies for our trip so I have a few home reminders to look forward to).
My little brain managed to cope with driving on the right and we took the dogs to a lovely nature reserve not far from Calais. I instantly spotted an urbex opportunity and was adamant the dogs should be involved in the fun, so after a quick recce, we lifted each dog over the fence and went for an explore. The boys enjoyed it, Mabel would have preferred to stay on the sofa 😂
We then had a lovely long walk through wetlands – Jasper weed on most of it, Ernest darted about and Mabel got to roll in sand as we neared the beach.
We almost skipped Gravelines but I squeezed the van in and we had a nice potter around the flower laden Vauben city walls and visited their UNESCO belfry (there are lots of these, I need to get more excited about them lol)
Dunkirk was an obvious stop and having realised we were too tall for the planned Aire, I ended up driving through the city in rush hour slightly tense and praying I didn’t crash…why do bus lanes suddenly cut off and become road, then bus lane again… why are the traffic lights smaller, the road signs different colours and and and…it was a bit stressful but our resulting free Aire tonight is a minutes walk from the beach (Plage de Malo Les Bains) and so much nicer. We had a windswept walk, watched a kite buggy and lots of kite surfers, then came home for dinner and planned the Belgian leg of our trip. So many options and recommended places to visit, we have a rough route but feel free to add to it 😊 (been to Brussels before so trying to avoid centre to reduce journey time).
SofaWolves 