I'm heading for Sardinia.
Emma so enjoyed her trip to Guernsey at Easter that she wanted to keep the impetus going and knock off Alderney (by bike) while she's off work this half term. And who can blame her.
So, what's a man to do when faced with such circumstances but to venture off somewhere that's far from the madding crowd and good for birdlife.
We did Corsica a couple of years ago and quite enjoyed the whole mid-Mediterranean experience, so I figured Sardinia might be worth a go.
Let's hope the rest of the trip isn't going to be like today! What can I say ... a sunny bank holiday in England only ever goes one way: chaos. I was on the road by 6.30am and, even then, the normally-quiet M18 was rammed with nose-to-tail traffic. It set the note for the whole day. Every junction on every motorway resulted in stop-start traffic and the whole thing was punctuated most splendidly by an omnipresent sprinkling of people driving into one-another having proved incapable of responding to the stop bit involved in stop-start traffic.
Stinking hot, stationary traffic and every out-of-town retail park rammed full with people panic-buying. It's an odd way to recreate.
Anyway, I broke the journey up by doing the Long Eaton parkrun in Nottingham and then by visiting Brian on his new Dutch Barge at Bletchley.
The parkrun was a stinker because of the temperature and humidity. It's a flat, flowing and well surfaced affair that would ordinarily be extremely fast. Not today, though. Not for me, anyway. I just found it a dead-legged, rasping-breath suffer fest.
By the time I got to Brian I was pretty raggy but some Earl Grey and a Pot Noodle cheered me up some. The barge is a well crafted and imposing beast that - once all the bodges imposed upon it by the previous owner have been fettled - will be quiet something indeed.
I left Brian at just after 5.00pm and I'd hoped that the final run down to the Dover area would be quieter. Pah! It was just as dreadful.
I finally reached my intended kipping spot at 8.05pm and this, at least, saw some sanity return. The cool(er) evening air and pleasant views out made for a good come-down. Dozens of brown hares have been the main wildlife interest.
My ferry to France leaves at 7.50am tomorrow morning but travellers have been warned to arrive at the port early to ensure embarkation. I understand there were four-and-a-half hour queues at Dover today and hundreds of missed crossings. Apparently the French totally abandoned the EES process and it was still carnage.
No doubt the CEO of the Port of Dover will soon go through the revolving door of nepotism and ascend to even greater things: plus receive a peerage.
Clownshoes.
Post composed at 22:00 on Saturday 23rd May from my intended overnighting spot N 51.20876°, E 00.83119° / http://maps.google.com/maps?q=loc:51.20876%2C00.83119