One night of camping to go. As we pulled into our campsite just outside Calais, that was the thought on both our minds. It was really hard to believe that we were actually catching the ferry back the next day after one more night in the van. We haven't really been thinking in terms of "last time" for this and that because we have just gotten so used to seeing or doing something new every day. The drive from Amiens up to Calais was not terribly exciting but we’re always amazed how quickly the scenery changes in France in just a few hundred kilometers. We had some difficulty finding a campsite because we were looking for one with wifi, to catch up on posting our blogs. We have been working very hard in the past two weeks to catch up on writing and captioning photos. After calling up a couple campsites, we finally gave up and just went for the one closest to Calais so that we had a minimal drive in the morning. Meghan started working on photos for the blog while I began to tidy up the van. We had a light dinner that evening, trying to use up as many leftover ingredients as possible. It was quite cool outside at 17 degrees with a strong wind blowing. It reminded us of our days in Brittany and it was strange to be wearing a sweatshirt again. We slept very well that night and woke up to pack up our van one final time. We tossed our picnic table (which was partially broken by now but had served its purpose well) and our door mat, which we had worn through. We stopped off for some fresh bread and patisseries – two pain au chocolats, a croissant, a choco-suisse, a chausson pomme and a baguette later, we were on our way to the ferry terminal. We were definitely not going into withdrawal. We got our passports stamped by UK border control and neither the French or UK immigration asked us any questions. We pulled into the queue and with over 150 traffic lanes, you really have to remember your assigned lane number. About an hour and a half later, the white cliffs of Dover came into view for the third time over the past year. It was grey, raining and only 15 degrees – what a difference and it is no wonder there are so many Brits hiding out in Provence! We checked into our hotel, the Copthorne Effingham, just before 2 pm and began hauling everything out of the van and into the room. This hotel was another Hotwire deal and it was conveniently located, only 15 mins from Gatwick airport and about 20 mins from the camper dealership in Burgess Hill. I borrowed one of the hotel’s luggage trolleys and it took me about an hour to get everything into the room. On my fourth and final trip, one of the housekeeping staff gave me a friendly smile and said that it looked like I had a lot of stuff. When I explained that we had camping for some time and were now heading back to Canada, he gave me his name and told us to contact him directly if we needed anything. While Meghan began sorting out the mess in the room, I went back down to the van to give it a quick clean and remove the baguette crumbs that had fallen into all the nooks and crannies. An hour later, the van looked presentable to handover. When I returned to the room, I found Megs sitting on the floor surrounded in all directions by all our stuff. It was a very good thing we had such a large room in which to spread out and pack. We spent the next five to six hours sorting our stuff into piles to keep and toss and Megs worked on getting everything we were keeping into our duffel bags so that we could get a rough weight estimate. We were going to completely max out our weight and size limits for both carry on and checked-in luggage, plus some more. Luckily, we were able to divert nearly 19 kg into our “camping equipment” bag, which wouldn’t count towards our check-in allowance. We were definitely going to have one extra bag to check in and our carry on was going to be packed to the brim, too. We only went to bed when we felt that the packing was under control.

The following morning, we set out for the VW dealership in Burgess Hill to hand over the van. It was hard to believe that after nearly 28,000 km we were back where we were exactly a year ago. We had a quick chat with Rob and Jason, the two gents that run VWCampersales, before we got to work packing up our bicycles. As usual, they offered us a much appreciated cup of tea. It was a very good thing we had taken photos and videos of the bicycle packing process when Rod had helped us to get our bikes ready for coming over. We took a break for a late lunch of fish n’ chips from the local fish shop. We then finished up the rest of our bicycles, got them into our boxes and taped them shut. We signed a couple papers with Rob to complete the handover of the vehicle to be put up for sale in the coming weeks. Jason then dropped us back at the hotel and what was supposed to be a 20 min drive turned into an hour excursion because of rush hour traffic and an accident on the road just before our hotel. We were pretty tired when we got back to hotel and didn’t really feel like finishing up packing. Megs continued to upload more blogs and before we went to bed, she had gotten ten blogs posted – bringing us up to date and achieving our goal to be caught up before flying back!

The next day, we finished up the last of our packing and tidied up the room. It had been a monumental task but Meghan’s expert packing skills had gotten it done. We had three large duffel bags, a bag of camping equipment, two large carry-on pieces, a painting, laptop and camera. And let’s not forget the two bike boxes. We were going to have to get nearly 160 kg to the airport and checked-in the following morning. I had scoped out the shuttle bus the day we’d arrived and it was perfect - a large city-size bus with luggage racks and after speaking with the driver, he said that at 5 am, it wouldn’t be a problem with that much luggage. We had considered getting a taxi, but they weren’t big enough! We had left quite a few clothes, kitchen and food items at the dealership yesterday and they were going to take it to the local thrift store. Only with all that extra stuff left behind had we managed to fit in the rest. We decided to stretch our legs and go for a walk. Unlike the previous two days, the temperature had risen drastically to nearly 30 degrees! We didn’t last very long on our walk and were soon back at the hotel staying cool. We walked out the nearby Duke’s Head pub for dinner and had a surprisingly delicious two course meal. It was a pub/restaurant and we had anything but traditional English pub food. The pub was very tastefully decorated and we were seated in a little alcove by the window. For appetizers, I had a salmon fish cake with a creamy dill dressing and side salad of mixed greens and celery root with a whole-grain mustard dressing. Meghan went for the sesame ginger wings served with some watermelon, pea shoots and pickled ginger. We both opted for the same main – a prawn and scallop panciotti (large stuffed pasta) with a fresh tomato sauce and whole cooked tomatoes. The entire meal was delicious and pleasantly unexpected for pub food. When we got back to the hotel, we finished up the last remaining bits of packing and then just worked on uploading more blogs and looking at potential rentals in the Vancouver area. Before heading to bed, I went down the hotel restaurant to retrieve the 1.6 kg of cheese that was being kept in their refrigerator. Before leaving France, we had stocked up on some cheese to bring back for Braeden. I also got them to give me two wine buckets full of ice so that we could keep it somewhat cool until we were ready to head for the airport in less than seven hours.

It was a very short sleep and one of our three alarms told us it was time to get out of bed and head to the airport. We had a quick shower, packed the cheese away and took the last of or luggage downstairs using their luggage carts. We had brought down a couple bags and left or bike boxes in their luggage room the previous day so we dragged that out and stood outside the hotel waiting for our shuttle bus. I had also spoken with the driver to give them a heads-up that we were not travelling light and so we knew that the bus arrived about five minutes before the scheduled departure of 5:20 am. It took us about four trips to get everything on the bus and onto the luggage racks and luckily, we were the only ones travelling at that time. The bus departed on time and didn’t pick up any more passengers at its next stop either. We were soon unloading at the South Terminal of Gatwick Airport and the bus driver was kind enough to make sure we had change for the luggage trolleys. We surprisingly managed to fit everything on to two trolleys and then we trundled them over to the Air Transat check-in, which was up one floor, through a number of doorways and down a steep ramp. There were probably a dozen or so Air Transat staff standing around and they were all just staring at us and wondering how we were possibly going to make it around the corner on this ramp. Finally, one fellow came over and showed us over to the elevators and we began the lengthy check-in process. Despite having weighed and re-weighed some of our luggage still came in overweight according to their scales. The lady checking us in said that was alright since we were paying for an extra bag that was allowed to be 32 kg. We had carefully read the website and were quite sure that it could only be 23 kg, but we happily unpacked some weight from our carry on to add to the extra bag. We requested a 2 seater at the rear of the aeroplane and luckily there were a few still available although they hadn’t shown up online when we checked in. We were very glad that we’d be getting the extra leg space and not have to bug someone else to go to the washrooms. As an added bonus, we were right behind the three seaters, so I even had a buffer from the food trolleys that usually clip your elbows as they are trundled past. We paid for our single piece of extra luggage and our two bicycles after checking all the bags in. Our camping equipment was free which was excellent as that alone weighed nearly 20 kg! We then had to take the bikes and camping equipment over to the oversized check-in counter back up on the first floor and when that was finally through, we heaved a huge sigh of relief. We then went looking for immigration to get our passports stamped but soon found ourselves at our boarding gate. When I checked with the staff at the counter, they said that Gatwick doesn’t do immigration upon departures! How bizarre is that? Anyhow, it was easier for us but I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn’t get to show the immigration officer our semi-sorted, 100+ camping receipts for the past year! Megs had been diligent in counting the days we spent out of France (for which we had a long stay visa) as legally, we were not supposed be in the Schengen zone for more than 90 days out of any 180 day period. That is partially why we ended up spending nearly 5 months in France, so that we didn’t violate this policy. Most people just ignore but we didn’t want any run-ins with immigration as when we were planning for this trip, I had interviewed a few people and they had been caught and were nearly deported and blacklisted forever!

When we got on the plane, we were surprised at the extremely narrow aisles probably only two feet in width. We struggled our way to the rear of the plane, stowed away our carry-on and settled down into our seats. Were we ever glad that our request to switch into a 2-seater had been successful – we had way more leg-room in front and on the sides. The in-flight entertainment was soon switched on and it was a good thing that it was because the flight was delayed for nearly two hours due to thunderstorms over Gatwick. I watched a French romantic comedy titled “Populaire” that I would definitely recommend to anyone looking for a feel-good comedy. Eventually we taxied out onto the runway and within a few minutes, we were airborne. It was hard to believe that our trip was actually coming to an end now and it was hard to believe that 365 days ago we had been arriving in London for the Olympics.

As we came into Canadian airspace, I asked myself what it felt like to be finally heading back home? It was a real mixed bag to be honest. Over the last two weeks, we weren’t looking at the Tis (tourist information offices) to find out what else there was to do in the area. We were counting how many more stamps we need for postcards and making sure we didn’t take out too many Euros from the ATM. It really felt unreal that a year had flown by so quickly. We weren’t tired of camping although we would definitely be looking forward to a little more space. Not having to walk in the cold to the washrooms and showers that had a predictable water temperature would be a definite plus. When we left behind some of our camping books and started watching how much fresh food we were buying, we really felt it was getting close. We were definitely going to miss this lifestyle – going wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted and for however long. Our to-do list was one that we always looked forward to and only included sightseeing, excursions and scrumptious food. And of course, we were going to miss the food – the cheeses, the menus and the daily visits to the boulangerie. All in all, it felt just as unreal going back as when we were coming here. We were however really looking forward to seeing everyone back home and catching up with friends and family. We were embarking on new adventures on the career and home front and as such, there was a lot to look forward to.

When we arrived in Vancouver, we made our way quickly to the luggage carousels. We had to declare all the cheese that we had brought back – all 1.6 kgs of it – and thankfully, Agriculture Canada didn’t have any qualms about it. Our luggage seemed to come out at the very end, as did our bicycles. Pushing three trolleys (YVR trolleys are designed for light travellers) between the two of us, we struggled past customs and out into the arrivals lounge. We were thrilled when we saw quite a large welcoming party – Rod, Braeden, Sheahan and Rob and Janet! We had only been expecting Rod and Braeden, so we were really happy to see everyone else, too. There were hugs all around and we quickly piled our luggage into Braed’s truck and dashed for Horseshoe Bay to make the 3:30 pm ferry, for which we had a reservation. It was strange not having to look at maps or directional signs to know where we were going. We made it just in time for the ferry and when we finally unloaded our luggage at Rod and Tanya’s place, we sat down on the couch and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We had a delicious barbeque that night for dinner as it was something that we had been craving all year long. We somehow managed to stay awake until about 11 pm before finally crashing into bed. It was hard not to start thinking about all the things that we had to do over the coming weeks: find a place to rent, move all our stuff from the Sunshine Coast into town, unpack and continue the job search somewhere in the midst of all that. Eventually, I was too tired to think and fell into a deep sleep. It was good to be home.