What a nightmare start to our adventure……..

Up early and left Bristol Baltic Wharf site at 7.30am - weather very wet and very windy. Got through Bristol ok, driving very carefully…… very windy still - and rain off and on (more on than off).

My brother and his wife were bringing my mum to meet us at Clackett Lane services on the M25 (near where she lives) so that was our first stop. Arrived there eventually feeling very windswept and had a great time in the very warm and cosy caravan before setting off for the Channel Tunnel. By this time the rain was torrential and the wind horrendous.

The Folkestone and Dover ports were closed because of the weather so the M20 was closed between junctions 11 and 12 so it could be used as a lorry park to cater for the lorries waiting for them to start operating again. We wanted junction 11a ! Sat in a traffic jam for about 30 minutes in the pouring rain before being taken on a diversion route to the tunnel where we had to pay through the nose for a ticket as we hadn’t pre-booked – WARNING TO OTHERS - £255, at least £70 more than internet price!

We were the last (literally) high vehicle to be loaded onto the 4.20pm train – squeezed in behind an enormous motorhome. Good job because the next train was cars only.

Great journey through – arrived in France to more wet and very windy weather – worse if anything. Followed Anne’s (and Tom Tom’s) brilliant directions and arrived at Manoir de Senlecques site near Boulogne around 7.00pm local time.

Wonderful little French man leapt out of his office in the pouring rain – hardly able to keep his umbrella up – and directed us to a pitch where we put the caravan legs down and hibernated for the rest of the evening and tried to salvage our nerves.

First meal in France ? – fry up – too wet and tired to venture further.

Site facilities appear, in the dark, to be basic but fine. Manor and grounds probably fab but no idea at this stage.

Planning to leave at 7.00am tomorrow to get an early start.

Good night.