Wednesday 6th July 2022 – I CAN’T BELIEVE …

… that I spent several days in Belgium and didn’t patronise a fritkot while I was there.

Something else that I can’t believe is that I’m only 200 kms from home and I’ve hit the wall. I can’t go any further.

It’s true that I’ve driven over 500 kms today and that’s the longest that I’ve driven in a day in quite some considerable time but the days when I could drive 32 hours non-stop towing a trailer are long-gone, even if it was only a few years ago that I last did that.

What a state to be in!

Mind you, I started early today. I was actually on the road at 07:50 this morning. And I’d had a late night and a rather depressing attempt at going to sleep, an attempt that didn’t work.

Alison banged on my door when she awoke and I had time to have a shower and pack my things before she headed off into the sunrise. I headed off too but I was going south, and for a very good reason too.

Trying to go round Brussels in the rush hour is impossible so I headed through the country lanes as far as Wavre where I juelled up and then went across the lines of traffic southwards to the suburbs of Charleroi where I picked up the motorway for Paris.

The motorway took me west for 100 kms until I hit a massive queue at the roadworks so even though it was still a few miles fro my turning that takes me eventually to Amiens I left the motorway and headed down some nice country roads.

The Lady Who Lives In The SatNav took me down roads that I had never travelled before and even found ways to by-pass Arras and Amiens. In fact I didn’t hit any big city at all the entire length of my route so far. It was slow but steady.

At one point we had a problem. Regular readers of this rubbish will recall that Caliburn had his windscreen replaced last winter. They must really have mauled it about because the plastic trim on the driver’s side that seals in the windscreen was only held in with one of the four clips and that suddenly broke off.

So after a brief stop along the way the plastic trim is now super-glued in and taped down with gaffer tape. But I’m not a very happy bunny.

Back on the road after lunch and a pause and I crossed the Seine south of Rouen. Normally The Lady Who Lives In The SatNav directs me over the Pont de Tancarville near Le Havre but I like this route so much better.

At 18:00 I used the telephone to find me a hotel “in the neighbourhood” and it came up with the Libre Hotel at Le Vespière near Orbec. I’ve not heard of this hotel before but it’s a good choice by the looks of things. Definitely upmarket from the usual Première Classe and not that much more expensive – still cheaper than in Belgium though.

But regardless of the time I’m going to bed. I’m exhausted and I can’t keep on going like this for much longer

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