Gravelines – Near Dunkirk.

Sunday 22nd May 2022

We set off from home at 7 am giving ourselves more than adequate time to drive the 220 miles to Dover to catch the 2.40 pm ferry to Calais. We had only been driving 40 minutes and had joined the M40 when we found it was closed southbound and we were diverted off to take a scenic route that criss crossed the motorway and eventually allowed us back on.

Driving in Homer is a noisy experience with road surface noise being quite loud, however as we progressed around the M25 we seemed to be experienced vibration from the locker that houses the water tank. We stopped at the services and examined it and padded out the lid but it didn’t seem to help.

Suddenly 20 miles north of Dover there was a loud bang and the rear of Homer began to shake, I pulled over onto the hard shoulder ( thankfully there was one) and buffeted by the constant traffic going past we discovered the rear offside tyre had blown. I contacted the RAC and with the aid of WHAT THREE WORDS app pinpointed our position and arranged for help to change the wheel. Thankfully ( a weird premonition) I had paid for a new tyre to be put on the spare two weeks ago.

Ten minutes after he arrived we were ready to depart, great service I have to say from the RAC. We made it to Dover with about 30 minutes to spare so it was a good job we left early. The ferry was pretty empty and it was very quiet onboard. It was only a short ride to where we are staying tonight and thankfully there was plenty of space. A quick Google has revealed three tyre depots in the vicinity so we know what we will be doing tomorrow morning.

It’s 7.45 pm pleasantly warm so we are off to have a walk around Gravelines which is a town surrounded by a fortified wall and moat.