Full disclosure: we're not really going to Guernsey in the truck. That would be stupid. I was personally last on the island in 2018 in my Delica, and even that truly diminutive and extremely agile camper was a handful on some of the roads there. Apart from anything, I'm not sure motorcaravans are even allowed to visit these days; not without mega-heavy restrictions, anyway.
So what am I banging on about with the Guernsey Trip references, then. Well, Emma's never been but has always wanted to visit, not least because of the vast abandoned engineering projects left behind after the Nazi occupation. Show her a dank tunnel with a gruseome history and good luck finding where she went.
And so, to facilitate some sombre Nazi tunnel trolling (plus some other stuff) we came up with a scheme ...
Today, we travelled to Portsmouth together in the truck and after a spot of tea at the port itself, went our separate ways. She intrepidly headed off on her bike on the 19:45 sailing to St Peter Port (pic); whilst I far less intrepidly chilled out on the truck until my own 23:00 sailing to Caen.
Her basic plan is to stay in a B&B on Guernsey for the next five days and to use her bike to not only take in the sights of the island, but to visit Sark and Herm, too.
My basic plan is not to do that, but to bumble in a birdwatching kind of way from Caen to St Malo instead where, late next Sunday night, we hope to regroup before spending the few days thereafter acting like we're actually married and bumbling round a fairly random bit of France together before eventually sailing back to the UK from Roscoff.
What could go wrong.
For completeness, the trip down to Portsmouth passed without much incident but I have, irritatingly, forgotten my magnetic 'Angles Morts' markers for the wagon so am going to have to buy some more before turning a wheel on French soil. I'm tempted to try to wing it without, but am also mindful of attracting the unwanted attention of a bored / anglophobe member of La Gendarmerie. I understand a €135 fine can be the penalty for failing to display the extremely confusing and largely totally ignored markers.
Post composed at 23:15 on Tuesday 31st March from a cabin on a ship @ N 50.81167°, W 01.09512° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:50.81167%2C-01.09512