26 October 2001 - Cavity Search
On to day 2 of the adventure, and we've already got a few stories to tell! A few technical problems (with the stack of gadgets we've got in the boot, not with the car you'll be pleased to hear) have meant we havn't been able to send email since we left the UK. We've fixed it now, so lots to catch up on...

Firstly we'd like to thank all the people who have subscribed over the last day or so.... we don't even know who half of you are!!! Keep up the good work passing the web address on to everyone you know, and we'll do our best to entertain you all with stories of our jaunt across europe!!

Well, onto the report. We met a number of other 'jobbers' on the ferry. Of course we had the loudest, most extreme mini on the boat, although there was a rather tasty Jaguar E type parked next to us!! Journey planning started in earnest. Apparently most other people were going to take the autoroute, but naturally we chose the most twisty route possible - lots of fun, but full of unexpected 'obstacles', as you'll find out.....

On leaving Calais, we swiftly veered off onto the first french 'D' road we came across, leaving everyone else to cruise the autoroutes. Thats where the fun started...!

We had always assumed customs patrols were a thing of the past in europe. Not so!

There we were, happily cruising through Avesnes-sur-Helpes (middle of knowwhere I believe is the english translation) when we get pounced on by 3 'Douaniers' - asking if we have anything to declare.... how very bizarre! Personally, if i was smuggling goods through europe i probably wouldn't do it in a Mini Cooper, covered in stickers, with my name stuck on the side! But they obviously thought differently...

30 minutes later, we were back on the road, making slow but steady progress towards our goal. Apart from the odd lorry carrying torture equipment blocking the road, progress was generally good for the rest of the day.

We ended up in a small town called Charleville, found a nice hotel, and swifly went out for a few beers. Dinner was interesting. In revenge for the BSE crisis, Alex was served a nice piece of lamb's spinal chord, followed by some of the smelliest cheese known to man.... or was that our feet, not really sure!

The day came to an end chatting in the hotel bar about the introduction of the Euro with some extremely drunk french people. Unfortunately the language gap meant we had to resort to pointing at pictures of the queen's head on a ten pound note, to get our point across...!

More soon.....

<< Click the back button on your browser to return