Sunday 19th April
Our last day 😕 I haven’t done a smiley or sad face as I’m not too sure how I feel. We have been away 6.5 weeks and I have had a wonderful time. However, it is time to go home and catch up with family and friends.
Richard and I discussed the adjective we would use to
describe the holiday, I said wonderful and Richard said lovely, but then I
wouldn’t expect anything more from him!!
We had a short journey to Hirel, just outside St. Malo. The aire was a CampingCar Park and really lovely. No set spaces, just choose your spot under the trees, find the nearest electric point, plug in and that’s it! There must have been 50 vans there and all French which we found rather strange. We found our spot but couldn’t work out which way to face - we obviously need marked spaces!
The aire is right beside the sea but there is a very wide green strip between the road and the beach. It looks as if it might flood on a spring tide. Rio loved it with lots of nice smells!
Can you spot Mont St. Michel?
At the end of the aire is a sailess windmill. Historically, Hirel was known for its windmills, which were vital for grinding grain produced in the surrounding polders and marshes. At one point, the area was dotted with several mills (up to seven in the local records), using the strong, consistent winds from the Bay of Mont Saint-Michel. Beyond their industrial use, these mills served as essential "daymarks" or landmarks for sailors navigating the treacherous waters of the bay.
Hirel is a premier destination for land sailing. Because the tide in the bay recedes for several kilometers, it leaves behind vast, flat sandy expanses that are perfect for these wind-driven vehicles. We were lucky enough to see some land yachts out plus one using a kite sail. He was zipping around at quite a speed.
So that was the last day of our, almost, seven week holiday. Ferry home tomorrow.
Monday 20th April
It was an early start as we needed to be at the ferry at 8.30am.
We drove right up the coast. It was a long road through one village after another with, more often than not, no gap in the houses. Yesterday we could see the mussel beds and oyster farms right out at sea and today it was all the wooden sheds where the mussels and oysters are prepared for sale.
We thought the road into St. Malo was very quiet for the time of day, but maybe the French start work earlier than the British do! All was fine until we came across a road closed with no “deviation”. We went round the roundabout a couple of times while I tried to think which way to go. Thankfully I chose the right way and Mrs Google soon caught up with us.
We were very early at the ferry port, but they do say 2 hours before if you have a dog. The check-in guy gave me the microchip scanner to do Rio. I’ve done it quite a few times with both Rio and Muffin, but this time it would not work. We even tried a different scanner. I was getting rather worried as to what was going to happen if the chip wasn’t working. Thank goodness the scanner finally gave a beep and all was well!
We had quite a wait, as usual, before we could embark. It’s much nicer now with Kiwi as I spent some time sorting things out.
Once onboard we got to our cabin and settled down for the 8.5 hour crossing. Brittany Ferries offer one free hour of wifi, so I made use of that to finish off my online Tesco order and updating the blog.
It was a lovely smooth crossing and we were able to walk round the ship in a straight line!
We had been late leaving St. Malo but we were early into Portsmouth. Last off the ship which is pretty typical with the dog, but only a 20 minute drive home.
I had sorted out what we needed for the night so took that and the washing off, and sat down with a pizza. We were shattered.
We hadn’t been home long when Langstone Bridge was closed as
someone was threatening to jump off it!
We could have been held up for a good 90 minutes.
Tuesday 21st April
To sum up.
47 days
2887 miles
I was looking back at last year's summary and I had said "in future we will spend at least two nights in most places". Needless to say that didn't happen! However, it seemed to work this year. I kept missing bits out, so we have another list of places to either go back to or visit.
I found my new best friend, Jem, invaluable. I learnt so much more from him than just using Google and he was also quite good at planning routes.
We love camping off grid and next week Kiwi is going to have lithium batteries fitted so we can do a bit more without panicking about batteries.
I'm still not the person who can wing things, but I can now happily miss places out, change routes and look for different places to stay. I think maybe the happy medium is where I will plonk myself.
I think our 47 days was about right. We were ready to go home, there was no sadness and no wishing we could go home a couple of weeks ago.
Brittany Ferries brought out their 2027 timetable a few weeks ago - almost three months early. As the pet cabins on the Spanish routes book up quickly, I booked for next year! Its a flexi ticket so can be changed if necessary.
We are only home for three weeks before we go to Ireland. This is another Wandering Bird trip which is why the two trips are so close together. There is a lot to fit into three weeks!
See you in Ireland :-)
These are a few photos which I like and that I don't think made it into the blog.
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