France

After an extremely leisurely morning, I eventually left the Henchers and made my way to the ferry. I arrived at the port at 15:10, got a ticket and was expecting to be put on the 15:30 after the receptionist had said I would easily be able to make it on in time as they were running slightly behind. So after sitting in a queue all by myself and watching all the cars unload and then board the ferry, I was a little disappointed to watch it sail off towards Calais without me! Fortunately a Lithuanian man on a motorbike parked up next to me and we chatted for the next hour and a half whilst waiting for the other ferry.

By the time I arrived in Calais it was around half 8 so I headed straight to the campsite I had been recommended by a couple I had been talking to on the ferry. It looked promising as I saw caravans and motorhomes all parked up inside the fence but it turned out that the campsite had actually closed down and all that was left was basically a car park, not somewhere I could pitch a tent.

So after deciding to head towards Dunkirk, my destination in the morning, I assumed there would be another campsite around somewhere close. By the time it had gone 10 and had started going dark I had given up on a campsite and had started pitching my tent in a random field outside Marck. Just to top it off, when I thought a nice, hot tin of beans would cheer me up slightly, I found out that I had forgotten anything to ignite the flame with...! Cold beans was not exactly what I wanted at the moment in time. This meant, after a terrible night's sleep, I was colder, more tired, more muddy and more annoyed than I wanted to be on my first night/day in France.

Fortunately, I had a nice pastry from a boulangerie in Marck the next morning and a gentle day (30.1 miles) to a campsite in Zuydcoote, where I had a nice hot shower and an afternoon of sleeping in my tent.