31 January 2024 - Canterbury (again)

Miles driven today = 109

Total Miles to date = 109

We've had a rather busy and stressful first few weeks of 2024.  I only got back on the 5th of January from spending a fabulous 3 weeks over the Christmas period in Canada with my daughter Lucy and her partner Daniel. Then, before I had a chance to fully get over my jetlag, we had to crack on with getting our Yorkshire home into a liveable state so that we can start making it our primary location when we get home from this trip.  

Once that was all sorted we barely gave ourselves a full week back in Suffolk to prepare to go away again.  I've not even had the chance to give the van a good scrub and she's looking decidedly unloved and a little green around the edges, having been in storage and not turned a wheel since we got back from our last music festival of 2023 at the beginning of October.  

Also, with it being more than a year now since we returned from our previous foray into mainland Europe, I have a weird feeling of apprehension that we have forgotten something vital or that I will have completely lost the ability to drive on the right hand side of the road.  Julie and Jason Buckley who publish the inspirational Our Tour motorhoming blog refer to it as "The Hump".  Something that you just have to get over each time you set out on a road trip and which quickly fades into the ether once those tyres are rolling again.  I'm sure it'll be fine and we will get ourselves back into relaxed touring mode very quickly once we are on French soil tomorrow morning.

I didn't even get a chance to check the water and gas systems were OK before we left home this morning, so when we popped in at my Mum's to wish her a fond fairwell and to fill up our fresh water tank, we discovered (surprise, surprise) that the taps in our kitchen and washroom sinks had both sprung significant leaks, thoroughly soaking everything which we had already neatly stored in the cupboards beneath.  Once we had got that all sorted out it was already lunchtime before we properly hit the road.

We've started this tour in much same way as we did that previous excursion back in the autumn of 2022, spending our first night in the dedicated motorhome aire at the New Dover Road Park & Ride facility just outside Canterbury.  We made a bit of a detour on the way here in order to fill up our LPG tanks.  Our local garage was completely out when I popped in to fill up earlier in the week, but a visit to Morrisons in Grays en-route ensured that we do at least have plenty of gas to keep us warm and toasty for the first portion of the trip.

It's still only £8 a night to stay here at the Canterbury aire. Payment is a bit fiddly as you can only pay £4 up to midnight on the day you arrive and then a further £4 in order to be released the following morning, but it's so convenient for the channel tunnel terminal that we didn't feel the need to search out somewhere new.  There are at least a dozen vans parked here, which is a good few less than the last time we were here, but does go to show that we are certainly not the only hardy souls who are taking to the road at this time of year.  We are actually parked in the bay right next to the one which was our home for the night back in September 2022.

We didn't arrive here until after 4pm and it was already getting a bit gloomy so we haven't made use of the free bus ride into Canterbury this time around.  But, much like our previous visit here, we have popped next door to the Old Gate Inn for our last taste of pub grub, washed down with a couple of pints of Harvey's Sussex Best in a good old fashioned dimpled mug.  

1 February 2024 - Arras