17/12/2024 – 06.01.2025

About a week before the family arrived in Marrakesh, James received a notification of his hospital audiology appointment on 21st December. As he’d been waiting since the beginning of July for this appointment, we decided to push fast back to Blighty.

We left the Riad about 11.30 and drove straight to Tangier Med port, arriving at 6 p.m. Exchanged our ticket for a boarding pass for the 11.00 p.m. sailing to Algeciras. Plenty of time to give Corrie a good beach walk and for us to have a good meal out.

Fortunately we gave ourselves plenty of time to get through customs, passport control etc. Our car was put under a scanner, just as it had on arriving in Morocco. Guess they’re checking for illegals. Sniffer dog in at all the doors too. Think the whole process was about an hour and a half and the port wasn’t busy!

We had expected to have to show Corrie’s rabies titer test cert and her Spanish port documentation. All purchased at several hundred Euros. But just waved through. I wondered if the lack of officialdom was due to it being the middle of the night. But no, Brian crossed back in the daytime and wasn’t asked for Zoa’s documents either. At least we paid for peace of mind bringing the dogs back into the EU.

Having arrived in Spain, we just drove! We stopped to pee, buy snacks and change driver. We did both sleep parked outside a cafe for about an hour and a half.

Driving all day on the 18th, we reached just south of Bordeaux. Straight to the vet I’d booked for 6.00 for Corrie’s worming tablet and pet passport stamp. Onto the hotel and a nearby restaurant. So lovely to be able to drink wine with your meal!!!

I suppose it’s no surprise that we both slept well. The 19th was another none stop driving day. We arrived in Calais at 6.00 p.m. We’d booked a studio apartment on Calais plage. We could have made a crossing that evening, but decided not to arrive at the Aged Ps house in the small hours. Brilliantly equipped and comfortable apartment;  I’ve kept the owner’s number. And it was a stones throw from a lovely restaurant. Still my birthday week, don’t ya know! So we elected to have the more expensive set menu! All three courses!!!

On the morning of the 20th, I did the booze and cheese shop whilst James and Corrie braved the icy sea winds. Premium lounge for lunch on the DFDS ferry. They had macarons… I won’t admit to how many I consumed!

J made his audiology appointment. Only another 2-3 months to actually receive his hearing aids. And it’s quicker, as he agreed to travel from Chichester to Portsmouth. Up to 6 months further wait at Chichester. So that will be nearly a year since he started the NHS application. Friends got theirs in about 6 weeks. It really is a postcode lottery, and it shouldn’t be.

We stayed with the Aged Ps until 27th. A family Christmas at my sister, Clare’s.

Thank goodness, the Aged Ps seem happy to host us, as Jez had been delivered post surgery / repair back to our usual farm, but was not happy. Both engine and lithiums were completely flat. No electric hookup at this farm. But we eventually jump started the engine and moved it to a site with hookup. Followed by a trip to a motorhome service centre. Both services good and MOT passed. We move in tomorrow!