InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Once the ferry booking was done and dusted I decided that I might as well get the first overnight stop booked. I had already been looking at Camping-Car Park (CCP) aires for the trip down through France as far as St Cyprien Plage. The firs top being around 180kms from the ferry port at Formerie. We have stayed there before. It's a small aire with only 6 places and it fills up quite quickly. To book I needed to credit my account with enough to cover the €12.50 (inc local taxe de sejour) overnight cost. I added €20 to the account taking my balance to €20.68! So that's booked. This will be a toll route start to the holiday! I have driven and ridden the "old" N1 from Calais via Boulogne to Abbeville so often and with the 80kph blanket limit even in the sticks, it's mind bogglingly terrible and tedious. I feel after 40 years I know every turn it has to offer. So it will be A16 from Calais to Abbeville. Once onto the A28 the route planning will be "toll free"!...

If you want to use the Tesco Clubcard vouchers you have saved up for a year to use against a crossing you have to phone them. Getting the vouchers converted into the right format to use though takes about 30 seconds on the Tesco Clubcard website. There is an online booking system but that's for debit or credit cards sales only! It's a bit antiquated that you can enter the voucher codes online. So today I tried several times.  The first time before lunch the average wait time was 57 minutes. I gave up as I was going to be going out. The second time later in the afternoon and it was up to 1h 17m. I gave up and thought as they are open until 6pm I would try at around 5pm. Apparently the average wait is 30 minutes....  I have been told after 40 minutes that I have less than 30 seconds to wait...44 minutes, still 30 seconds.... Why the urgency?  There is supposed to be an offer when you book but when I got through around 50 minutes it was only one offer. The £18...

Just the three. With some building work going on and the barn partially out of action, a lot of the dogs have gone to the kennels. So today I only had permanent resident Tyrone and Sarah Jessica Barker plus new boy Johnny Derp to feed and exercise.  The building work also means they are on the long leads. Sarah Jessica Barker Tyrone For some reason even though I took one of Johnny it didn't save. This is not the first time my phone has done this. https://www.kentgreyhoundrescue.com

A short walk along the north bank of the canal.  Walking towards Hythe, the horse chestnut trees in full leaf and with this autumn's conkers weighing the branches down.

This is the map from all the European places where we have been. Or at least where my Google phone has been. At least I can see where the gaps are and places maybe to visit another time.

Today Claire and I volunteered to "person" the Guide Dogs stand at the Fayre. I took a picture before everything started to get busy and a few of the carnival parade. The two hours we did seemed the fly by. Our next stint will be two hours at the Venetian Fete in Hythe on August 21st. We are on the stand from 4pm to 6pm. Come on down.

The season has already started with Premier League clubs flying all over the globe to big up their international support despite moaning their players are tired.... Arsenal are no exception. Currently in the US playing pointless games against other Premier League sides just to sell $125 shirts (or jerseys as they call them) and other gear. Then it's back to London to play games against Bayer Leverkusen and Olympique Lyonnais. I decided after years of not bothering to attend pre-season games to go to the Leverkusen game. Simply because it sees the return of Granit Xhaka that left a year ago to return to Germany, and chose Leverkusen. Last year they won the Bundesliga as Invincibles.  Invincibles in Germany 2023/24 versus the only club to go a season without losing a single league game - Arsenal in 2003/04 for over 130 years in England. It's August 7th. Helen and I will have our own Emirates Stadium seats. For this game being aged over 65 got me a concession ticket. Win. Win. ...

Tickets went on sale today for Aldershot Town away on August 24th.  Decided to indulge myself and make the trek over there again. Last time went in the car and parked near the town centre. It was a bit of a dump.  This time I expect to go on the bike and now have to start looking for somewhere to park.

The Welcome Board at Waterpump CL Claire and her cider Greene-King Hazy Day IPA Stocks in the background for anyone not finishing their beer.... I sent this to the blog with email but it was too big for Blogger but Travellerspoint worked perfectly.  There is a limit to the total size of the photos that can be attached when sending via email. So to save re-typing it's here -  https://devall-travels.travellerspoint.com/797/ The same with this one, a couple of photos and it was a NO....:   https://devall-travels.travellerspoint.com/799/

0900 Today when I got up to take Reggie for his early morning perambulation there was a lot of activity. I am not an early morning person and so dog walks at 7.30am are a strain. At least the boy was asleep all night and I was saved an evening earlier wander around the showground, doggy bag in hand... Today the sounds are all of people packing up and getting ready to leave. Our closest neighbours went yesterday and another lot went just now.  The latter were parked as instructed but with their T5 VW they had a tent/awning almost the same footprint alongside us. There was just enough room to walk through. Once breakfasted there are very few jobs to be done before we leave. I have the EHU to disconnect and the silver screen to stash. Claire has to wash up. Next stop Snape Maltings in Suffolk. 1200 We arrived at Snape and as before we go past the entrance and turnaround in the next parking area! We end up in a different area of the parking between two trees. Access to the overflow car...

We arrived at the Norfolk Showground at around 4pm. We hadn't had too much of a delay on the motorways up to the Dartford Tunnel.  It took a while to get off the A2 onto the tunnel approach road. Not helped by a truck driver blocking the outside lane for over 640 yards to the merge point. Probably patted himself on the back. Sadly, just a wanker. One on site we were directed by the excellent marshalls to our space on the green field. The show didn't officially start until Friday but camping was available from 8am Thursday.  It looks that in the 8 hours before we arrived thousands took up the option to arrive. I'm not kidding. There are hundreds upon hundreds of motorhomes and campervans, plus wobble-box owners. The theme for the weekend is Rock and Roll. There are two venues. One in the big top circus tent and the other one the events centre. Only the top of the bill eventually on Saturday evening has an additional cost. The cost of the rally with EHU was £140 for four nigh...