On to Europoort

Wed 25th Oct

I should have mentioned that the colours show the day by day routes. It’s probably become obvious!

On Tuesday we drove across Germany on motorway the whole way. I am now almost used to the stupid car drivers who won’t give way when you signal to pull out and drive as if 130 kph is the minimum.

It is hard when you want to progress past a lorry, to have a BMW hanging onto your rear bumper because they too want to progress past a Defender.

We connected to the outgoing route by staying at the same campsite we had used for nights 1 and 2. Instead of 32C and a massive, scary electrical storm, is was a cold 5C overnight and very damp. It had rained for much of the way.

The rain stopped as we arrived so we managed a leg-stretcher walk. However Dawn seems to have entered a carefree phase of her life and got rather relaxed on this great trip. I am pleased but worried for her future.

The final drive was through the Mosel region of Germany and on into Holland. There were one or two very high motorway viaducts, including this one which is staggering.

Then it was across to Europoort. The reason we are returning on the Hull ferry, is to have a short final run to home in the morning and to avoid the stress of the M20/25/1.

It didn’t work. The Netherlands economy seems to involve filling their complex motorway system with as many vehicles as possible. It was incredibly busy and as forecast, the rain started mid-morning and got heavier and heavier. It made for several hours of tricky driving.

Europoort / Rotterdam is the biggest industrial area you can imagine. It stretches for miles and miles. There’s so much stuff here it’s impossible to take it in. Even the view from the ferry is scary in its complexity.

However we are here on the Pride of Rotterdam which leaves at 21:00 local time and we will disembark at 07:30 local time tomorrow. So we will get a lie-in! Hopefully the Hedon Road won’t be too busy.

The overall mileage will come in at just over 5,000 so pretty much as expected. The Landy has performed well after that early overdrive oil leak. There are two underlying issues to fix, long term ones that it is time to sort out. That will be a winter project.