I really enjoyed my two week stay in the good old UK recently, I visited three museums and I also managed to meet up with several mates that I had not seen for simply ages.
The only tricky decision was when to risk my return ferry crossing as during school holidays and with the amazingly stupid Brexit rubbish all passports must now be stamped, you only need a coach load of kids heading to France on a school trip and that delays customs for an hour!!! CRAZY, thanks Boris et al.
So I gambled on dawn on the Saturday cos otherwise I would had to wait until Monday. So I left Cambridge at 0300 and arrived in the Dover queue at just after 0500 so I only queued for one hour to get through and then almost straight onto the 0715 DFDS ferry!! I bet that arriving just one hour later would have added 2 hours to the wait, and so on.
So I drove off the ferry in sunny Calais at about 1030 (with the 1 hour time change) and hit the motorway heading south. The traffic was fortunately not heavy and I made good progress, the temperature was a very mild 20 ish degrees so the van was running really well and I set the cruise control to 130 kph which is the ideal speed for the van, only 2200rpm. I had filled up with fuel at Bar Hill near Cambridge so I had 900km range so 700 from Calais.
Well I stopped for the night in Sallanches which is only about 20km from Chamonix (where I would take the Mont Blanc tunnel) and I checked into the Ibis Budget which is great for one night and I filled the van with fuel and walked over to Carrefour for food at the excellent self service and headed to bed. I set the alarm for 4am and awoke at 0230 and left Sallances at 0300.
Progress on Sunday was great and I stopped for sandwiches and a brief rest at Orte before stopping at my lovely garage in Tramonti, I unloaded the Yamaha and I arrived in Amalfi at about 1900, very tired but very happy!!! WONDERFUL van!!! And of course the European Telepass is a must when you face a long trip.
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