We were booked on the 9.30am
ferry from Dover to Calais. The first mishap was that we were
supposed to be travelling with Karen and
Christian in Sputnik, and she discovered the night before that they were booked on the
wrong ferry and should have left the day before! Luckily they
managed to get it changed, but couldn't get on the same one as us.
They had to have an even earlier start, and left on the 7.00am ferry.
In true Bandit form, Glenn and Lemmy travelled down with
Maxine and I to wave us off, and we met up with Al and Max (the Mini) at Clackett Lane Services on the
M25. We also met up there with Rich and Andy, Ben and Mark, James and
Clare, and Paul and Georgina. Second mishap was that Ben and Mark's
battery was playing up, so they made a diversion to Halfords before
boarding the ferry, making it by the skin of their teeth!
Leaving Dover
On the boat - meeting up with
Cuan, Tony, Clive and Richard.
Arrival at Calais
After a quick discussion of
routes whilst on the ferry, we decided to split into two groups, as a
convoy of 8 cars would have been difficult to manage over such a long
journey. The others wanted to go via Switzerland, whilst we fancied
seeing Monte Carlo, especially as the weather was going to be warmer down
there. So our little party would consist of Rich and Andy in Jojo,
Karen and Christian in Sputnik, and Max and I in Binky. Karen had
already phoned us while we were on the boat to say that they were waiting
for us just after the first paege on the Paris motorway, so we set off to
join them.
On our way to meet up with Sputnik
After some last minute
adjustments to headlight diverters and route discussions we set off on our
way. The picture below shows Binky having his first taste of French
petrol. He decided he didn't like it! Shortly after leaving
the petrol station he started missing like mad. We imagined all
sorts of problems that it could have been, and that the Job was over for
us before we'd hardly started. As it turned out the problem cleared
itself after a few stops on the hard shoulder, it must have been water in
the petrol or something.
After that we continued on our
way uneventfully to Dijon, where we stayed overnight in a Campanile
hotel. We stopped at a reasonable time and managed to fit in a few
beers and bottles of wine with a nice meal in the hotel restaurant.
