Booking dot com
The time has come to book the ferry crossings out to France. The journey from Wales to the south coast is 6 hours regardless of the crossing that I choose. I still have to get down to Puilaurens where Ali lives and thats another 700 miles from the channel tunnel. The cost of the tunnel crossing is coming in at about £150 which is not too bad and if I add a €50 hotel onto that I can be there in two days and not too painful for cost.
Out of interest I looked into the ferry crossings as I can save 150 miles by going to St Malo or Caen but the cost of an overnight ferry with cabin was already £350 and its still a bit painful to plough the 600 miles in a day to Alis house and still another €50 euros on top as I would need to stop.
In the end I managed to get an overnight ferry crossing from Newhaven to Dieppe with a cabin for just £186. I can leave Wales mid-morning, cruise the 6 hours down to the south coast and board the ferry. Its only a 5 hour crossing so there is not going to be a long and restful nights sleep but its a good compromise on cost, mileage and comfort.
The following day I will cover the 400 miles to Brive-la-Gaillarde in a leisurely 6 hours and then grab a €50 hotel in the early afternoon. I am pretty sure that a good afternoon snooze will be as valuable as a good nights sleep. At the end of September it will be getting dark earlier and there is no telling what the weather will be doing. I don’t fancy the last 100 miles on the little mountain roads around Puilaurens in the rain and the dark at the end of a 600 mile day.
Closing out the last 4 hours to Alis house after a coffee and croissant I should be there early afternoon. Enough time to cross load a few items, make any last minute additions to the inventory of food and then kick back with a cool beer. The following day we have 186 miles to cover to get to the port of Sete by lunchtime and I am sure that neither of us will be able to sleep very well thinking about what is to come. 45 hours on the ferry is what is to come and we have no idea what to expect but we are expecting the worst.
This trip is going to be 6 or possibly 7 weeks and there is no point killing myself literally or figuratively in the first three days and so my cruise down to Puilaurens is now booked and that is the last link in the outward chain.
