Because we had done a long day yesterday, we had a whole day to chill and explore the area, but we were extremely short of fuel – the gauge was now showing 4 miles, and who knows how accurate these things really are? Consequently our first visit was to the small town of Guines and fuel, where we finally managed to use our credit card in the unmanned pump and fed the car. Hubby said he had no idea the tank would take that much, it really was running on fumes.

I started to breathe again and we set off for Cite Europe; we had visited it in 1997 and remember buying lots of cheap wine at Tesco – it seemed strange then that "our" supermarket was in a foreign country and was cheaper there than at home, but it no longer exists. We wandered the outlet mall (yes, it's a stylish building but virtually empty of people and somewhat disappointing in goods, not particularly cheap either) then shopped at the large Carrefour for dinner and wine.

We returned to the site and had a drink in the bar then chatted to some very nice English people on our way back to barbecue our steaks. England were playing Uruguay tonight and we decided to watch them in our van – I had a feeling we would not be celebrating the result and so it proved. Hey ho.

Fri 20, Sat 21 June: returning home

 Our ferry this morning was at 11am, so after packing up we set off for the port; Hubby decided to trust good old Helga the satnav instead of me and she took us through lots of little villages, some with really tight turns, until common sense won out and I took over – I couldn’t stand the strain of sitting with pursed lips and not saying “I told you so”! 


 The crossing was OK, quite windy but sunny, and the white cliffs of Dover got nearer and nearer. We had decided not to try & get home in one go and had booked ourselves into our friends’ garden near High Wycombe, knowing that the M25 would be busy on a Fri afternoon. So it proved – nearly 5 weeks travelling and apart from roadworks near Ghent on the way out and those near Antwerp on the return, we hadn’t been held up at all until the M25. Sod’s Law!

We had a lovely evening with our friends and set off for home next morning, having travelled nearly 3700 trouble-free miles through 9 countries using mountain passes and tunnels, auto bahns/routes/stradas, main roads & country lanes whilst negotiating traffic, bicycles, trams and herds of cows. We enjoyed every single minute of it and can’t wait to do it again.

Caravanning rules!