Sunday 14 September 2008
Awoke to a beautiful sunny but noticeably colder morning. As usual I opted for the full works breakfast, German style, with Fatrat opting for gallons of strong coffee only. We managed to set off by 8am and for the first two hours or so the roads were very quiet. We thus were able to make it into Belgium before our first pit stop, which was as much about giving the Beast some respite as anything else.
After hearing the news from my better half that I had become a great uncle for the first time (making me feel much older!), we continued around the infernal Brussels ring road and up to the coast road towards Calais. Nick phoned ahead and managed to get our reservation brought forward from 4.40pm to 2.10pm.
Arrived at Calais at around 12.30 pm with therefore plenty of time to spare. This was just as well as the queues for passport control were much longer than usual. We travelled back on an older Sea France boat, which we think had been specifically pressed into service at the last minute.
A good problem free final journey up the M20 and round the M25 saw us back in Forest Row at 4.30pm. We did not think we had seen our model of Mercedes at all on our entire trip, but as we passed through East Grinstead we saw a blue version travelling in the opposite direction! Even more surprised when a white Mercedes of a slightly different vintage was following right behind us as we turned right into Rystwood Road. Spooky!
So the old boys and the old girl made it, noisy steering and all - a fitting tribute to the quality of German engineering!
The final day's tally was 4 countries visited and 395 miles covered, making 2,989 miles in total on our tour. (End mileage 58,963)
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