2. Oct, 2022

2. Oct, 2022

SUNDAY 2-10-22

Another peaceful night, though they are getting cooler now. We've had the electric ceramic fan heater on a low setting the past couple of evenings, and this morning I climbed out of bed, dropped the roof ventilation hatch down and turned the fan heater on again. This would insure it was a comfortable temperature before The Chef and I made our way over to the toilet block. It was too late to bother trying to get back to sleep and so I just laid there and let my mind wander.

Strangely enough, for some reason, it wandered to Her Majesty the Queen's funeral service, and I have to say, the most poignant moment for me was when, as she lay in St George's Chapel at Windsor, the sceptre, orb and Imperial State Crown were removed from the top of her coffin. It was as if we were all, through those officiating, finally relieving her of the burden she had shouldered as our monarch for most of her life, and allowing her to be just a wife and mother before she was laid to rest.

Then I wondered if we could all have such adornments on our coffins to represent our lives for our final journey. So for example Jamie Oliver could have a giant Turkey Twizzler on top of his coffin. The disgraced former leader of the Liberal Party, Jeremy Thorpe could have had a large jar of Vaseline on his. For me, I'm thinking maybe a bottle of red wine with the bottle mounted at fort-five degrees ready for pouring. It would have to be a screw-top bottle though as I don't recall the bible mentioning heaven having corkscrews.

The showers were the usual, cramped, skanky but with plenty of hot water. Once fed and watered I set about getting the vehicle ready for the road. We'd managed to run the fresh water tank down to nothing and so it took about ten watering cans full from the nearby tap to fill it up again. I particularly wanted to do it this way so that we could have the freshest water possible onboard before we start our journey towards home, as they'll be no more campsites, and the planned Camperstop's are small and it will be all about luck if we can get on to them.

Once everything was checked, replenished and secure we hit the road, leaving at about 10:00. We only had about two-hundred and fifty miles to travel today. It was four-hundred to our next destination but I really didn't want to do that in one hit. I'm the only driver so it all falls to me, and I'm quite happy with that, though sometimes I envy couples who drive in to motorway rest areas pull up, change drivers and drive straight back out again. Sure, they get to their destinations quicker but I wouldn't call such long journeys pleasurable.

We've been past Lyon before travelling southwards, but today we had the pleasure of doing it in a northerly direction. Oh what joy. The satnav took us right through the middle of the city, and we weren't the only ones, we were among Belgians, Dutch, Germans etc who were all going the same way as us, so we couldn't really blame the satnav. We spent absolutely ages in a three lane traffic jam crawling along the side of the river. It was good to see that had a tram system there and there also looked to be a marathon taking place. That's how close we were. Eventually we could see the cause of the delay. It was two dual carriageways, I guess one carrying city traffic, and those of us just trying to pass through, having to merge together at a crawling pace down to just two lanes. It was a while before we finally cleared it all. It was then as my tummy rumbled that I regretted saying to The Chef that I'd like to clear the Lyon area before we pull over for lunch. I should think we were delayed by as much as forty-five minutes.

After our late lunch we plodded on until we arrived at our destination - a small car park in front of a small Super U supermarket near Dijon (N47.291095° E5.099589°). We'll park here for the night before popping in for a few bits of shopping then heading further north for about one-hundred and fifty miles.

Whilst sitting here I've booked the return Eurotunnel crossing. It's to be around mid-day on Friday. I wanted Saturday with an extra day built in for safety, because if we miss the crossing we lose our money, but The Chef felt that was dragging it out a bit, especially as we'll be fending for ourselves without campsites. So Friday it is. We've a few bits to see and do before then all being well.

In the meantime I'm going to enjoy a glass of glug before my fine dining experience served up by The Chef. Oh and it's just started to rain. Not such a bad thing really as it has meant the kids who were rollerblading around the car park have gone home.