I should have grown out of smirking at the sign we regularly saw as we left motorway services in Germany, but a childish giggle bubbled up from nowhere! The German word for “exit” was Ausfahrt so we saw that word everywhere on motorways. I didn’t learn German at school so maybe my inappropriate amusement could be put down to ignorance.
Whilst in self critical mode I have to confess two chores that I had completely abandoned whilst we had been travelling – I think many will concur. Firstly, except for moisture cream and sun screen, I had used no make-up on my face. Secondly, I had not ironed any clothes – clothes were washed, dried and folded and, after wearing for a short time, the creases were barely visible. Tony didn’t appear to have noticed any drop in standards. Any comment from him about wrinkles in either department would have had serious consequences!
When we reached the Calais area we saw the usual groups of young migrants walking along the roadside and generally hanging about. We parked overnight in the car park near Carrefours, designated for camper vans with no height limit at the entrance. Whilst we away shopping three migrants were seen looking over our truck, climbing on the roof, opening outside lockers and trying to undo the motorbike cover. On our return Tony spoke to them and they told him they were trying to get to the UK. They were polite and well dressed and spoke good English. They told Tony they were originally from Sudan.
Later that evening there was a loud knock on the door and a security guard said they were closing the car park for security reasons and requested that we move on and park somewhere else overnight. We refused to move (it was 10 pm) and the migrants were everywhere, not just in our car park. Anyway, we felt no threat from these young men as our truck was very secure and Tony had told them to leave it alone! The security guards finally gave up and merely placed a light plastic chain across the car park entrance which they removed the next morning. We carefully checked outside the van in case we had extra visitors before we set off for Eurotunnel.
Blog ends.
