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Monday 8th June 2015 Dover to Boulogne We got to the ferry fairly early and happily they managed to get us on an earlier sailing, the 10.10 one instead of the 11.10. Virtually as soon as we were aboard and had stowed the bikes the boat slipped its moorings and we set off.
It was a straightforward crossing and within just an hour and a half we were docking in Calais. The ferry crew kept us back to avoid being flattened in the rush of the motor traffic to disembark but once the mob had dispersed we were able to simply cycle off into France - there were no controls or formalities at all. We went astray at the beginning and added a mile or so faffing about in Calais but did get to visit the town centre and see its impressive town hall, the Hotel de Ville, as they call it.
There had been a lot of publicity recently about the migrant issue with about 3000 migrants from Africa, Syria, Afghanistan all camped out around Calais trying to board lorries and smuggle themselves into Britain in search of a better life. Who can blame them for that but of course we can't support the entire population of every ruined, war-torn country in the UK. Anyway the press had made it sound as if the mobs were intimidating but Andrew and I didn't see anything like that. We saw a few Africans wandering around but there was no sense of menace or threat from them, they were just there.
From Calais we took the coast road through Sangatte and rode on down. They were nice, easy roads to cycle on with little in the way of hills to slow us down and the weather was lovely. We stopped in a village, Escalles, and had our first foreign sandwich at the Café L'Escale then back on the road we came to Ambleteuse where there was a World War II museum. There was no-one around, no ticket office or the like, so we got off the bikes and had a wander round the outdoor exhibits, including a Sherman tank, before carrying on.
At about 17.30 French time we rolled into Boulogne and had no trouble getting fixed up with a hotel - a nice one on the sea front, the Hotel Opal Inn. Boulogne was a pleasant, clean town with a statue of the South American General San Martin, who died in Boulogne, just outside our hotel.
Bike computer: 32.35 miles GPS: 31.4 miles 10.2 mph avg 47.5 mph max (must be an error - I did see 36 mph on the bike computer at one point though) 5380 ft ascent | |||||||
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