I am fortunate that at the age of 66 I have now retired – so I have time on my hands. Probably too much time, to be honest. One of the darker parts of travelling is that when you get back home you start withdrawal symptoms. Well, I do. When I get back off a trip I purposely don’t unpack my panniers and only take a few things out of my tote bag – just in case the blues become too much and I have to hit the road again…
This time the blues hit hard. It was late September, and being bored I knew that I just had to get out on the road again so a few weeks after my last trip I decided to grab my passport (as you never know), load up the bike and hit the road again. The bike had been into the Honda dealer in Glasgow for a full-service and a valve-check, so the bike was ready to go – but was I..? Hell, yes…!
1st October 2025 – The UK: Loading up the bike, and with no particular plan in mind, I headed east towards Edinburgh and then south along the east-coast. My first stop was in Scarborough, where I stayed over and visited Scarborough and Bridlington. Then I headed south, meeting my friend Daz for lunch in Hull, then continuing south to Essex where I stayed with my Son for a few days. After that I went down to see another friend (and her dog, Gizmo) who lives in Sussex, where I also stayed a few days. It was then that I realised that I still had ten days left on my Schengen calendar. When I was in Sweden I had intended to go over to Norway but had to return back to the UK sooner than expected – so why not use up that Schengen time…?
7th October 2025 – France: Booking a ticket on Le Shuttle the evening before, I left Sussex early in the morning and made the short trip down to Folkestone and caught Le Shuttle over to Calais. As it was mid-afternoon when I got off Le Shuttle, I decided to stay nearby and found a community campsite in-between Calais and Dunkerque, at Grand-Fort-Phillipe. The Camping de la Plage campsite was brilliant. Peaceful and with great facilities, it was near to a small town, and a big supermarket. It was central for some of the things I wanted to see in the area. And not bad for £10 a night. Bonjour à nouveau, France.
