We managed to get away to time this morning, despite John's awaited new lenses arriving at the opticians today! He had them fitted to his old frames, returned home and off we set. Travelling on the ferry can be full of surprise entertainment. Climbing the staircase from the car deck we were surrounded by 50 excited 10/11yr olds, who we soon discovered were on a 3-day trip to Paris and Eurodisney. We settled into a nice quiet lounge and when I came back from the loo, all the lot of them had found it too (the lounge not the loo)! John chatted to their very patient teacher who soon rounded them all up again to go off to the cafe. We had noticed a small group of student-aged people all wearing orange sweatshirts, bearing the words "Bummit Croatia". We soon got to know what that meant as they approached all the other passengers, requesting lifts (we assume in the general direction of Croatia). We couldn't help them as we were only coming 25 miles from Calais today, but 3 of them got a yes from a Dutch chap sitting near us and spent the whole crossing getting to know each other. We think they were being sponsored for charity to be very resourceful in making their way across Europe, probably the cheapest way possible. Soon, along came a chap in a smart suit holding a clipboard. He stopped by me and said that he was doing a survey, questioning every 10th person about their destination and length of stay. I was possibly the first one to give the answers - Italy and 5 weeks!! Back came the children, even more bubbly after their fizzy drinks and bags of crisps, but they were very well behaved - just couldn't stop chattering, some on their mobile phones!
We were soon out in the sunshine on our way out of Calais and the short drive to Licques to a new campsite to us. It was while we were pootling through the pretty country lanes, I had a thought. I would get out the campsite book to check the directions. It then occurred to me that I didn't put the (several) campsite books in the van - er, neither did John .... they must still be at home in the study! Once upon a time this would have been a disaster, but my super-techy-hubby soon reassured me that all the information we shall be needing is on an app on the tablet (who would have understood this language a few years ago?), so we'll be fine. France is excellent at signs to their campsites anyway, so we trust that Italy does the same.
Spending a very relaxing evening now at this quiet and pretty site. Had a text from Peter to say that they were thoroughly enjoying Center Parcs - had an exhausting day playing minigolf and swimming.
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