What is it with me going to France, part II

Anybody running a book if the ferry ports will be un-blockaded by the
weekend?

I guess I'll better have a word with Seafrance to see if they manage a
gallic shrug over the phone and then figure out if I rebook via the
Chunnel.

 

Were off tomorrow afternoon from Dover to Dunkirk, 17 of us
so hopefully it might be back to normal by then.

Feking french.

Alan

 

I'd certainly hope so as well, given that I just looked up how much even
a one-way Chunnel ticket would set me back.

Something like that. What I find odd is that this has been going on for
quite a while if I deciphered the article on Le Monde correctly (I can't
say "read" because my French isn't that good and Le Monde isn't that
easy to read for me), but we obviously only noticed once it spread
beyond the fishing ports.

 

Things are calming down on the fishers' front.

 

Ta, that's good to know.

 

There were 60-odd Ducati racers in a panic as it's the Assen
round this weekend, and they were all supposed to be leaving
yesterday and today. Some have managed to get on the Harwich
to Hook of Holland route and some via Hull, but the others
are not happy at all!

If you can get on it as you're not the only one trying that
right now. The other problem is getting to the terminal at
Ashford as the police closed the M20 yesterday due to the
backlog of trucks due to cancelled ferries.

 

Funny that.

Heh. I'm in Ashford, on the "right side" of Operation Stack. Well, for
getting to the Chunnel, but not for getting to London... One of the
advantages of this place here is that I'm about 10 minutes from the
terminal.

 

What I'm wondering is how many bikes there are on the French side,
waiting to get across and up to the TT? Because I'd expect there to be
a hell of a lot. And given that the ferries only carry a limited
number of bikes, because of the number of tie-down straps they carry
on the boats, this suggests to me that there might well be a *long*
backlog of motorcycles to clear when you come back.

 

Oh yes, I forgot you'd moved down that way. I expect that all
roads leading to any point of departure round that way will
be very heavily crowded right now.

 

Well, the plan was to take the car so I can take a change of
underwear. For some odd reason whenever we take the bike, the size of
the panniers doesn't matter and they're full before I had a chance to
pack the toothbrush.

Joking aside, if it proves to be necessary to Eurotunnel via the bike,
I'd have to get Brian to fit a new front tyre and possibly do a
mini-service before we go. Which basically means, tomorrow...

 

Indeed, and that may mean that we'll have to take the bike instead of
the car. Bleh.

 

<Strokes Eurotunnel ticket for the weekend>