Tuesday 11th April 2023
Today is the start of our next adventure/trip. We left home at 6.30am to avoid local rush hour traffic and made good time until we hit the M42 where the inevitable 50 mph road works began and slowed us down.
The M40 was reasonably clear and we trundled along at 55 mph when suddenly the traffic slowed and stopped, after edging forward for a few minutes we came across a horrific scene of devastation with what I believe was a 7 vehicle pile up with vehicles crashed on both sides of the motorway, two men were carrying out CPR on someone alongside a car ( they were off duty policemen) I read later that the person died. The emergency services hadn’t arrived when we cleared the area as the accident was some distance from a motorway entrance/exit. Not long after we passed the scene the motorway traffic was halted and didn’t move for an hour or more.
We made one stop at Beaconsfield services for a coffee and a pain au chocolate and to let Layla stretch her legs and then made the decision not to stop again until Dover. We whizzed through the French passport control, was given a dismissive wave at customs and Layla wasn’t even micro chip checked at the ticket booth. We drove to the waiting lane and then found ourselves waved onto an earlier ferry and 10 minutes later we were sailing to France. I had booked a new service provided by P&O a dog lounge ( humans were allowed in too) it was a lovely lounge with free coffee and coke provided, plus water bowls for dogs.
From Calais it was a short drive to Gravelines where there is a motor home stopover we have used several times before at a cost of 7.50 euros per night.
taraabit 