Day 2 – Dover to Licques

While France slept

Monday 2/4/18

Distance 28.4km Total from Canterbury 62.9km

The picture is of the clock tower of Calais town hall.

A short walk to the Dover ferry terminal and then the process began. This is PRE-Brexit. I sense it can only get more complicated. You need passport to check in. The kindly lady said in 30 years she had never seen an ‘Irish Passport Card’ before. But she was persuaded.  I have had mine for over two years, since they were first issued. Then you have to have your passport scanned to get on the bus. The bus drives  you 200m to French immigration. All off the bus and out into a shed, for passport check. After that, another few hundred metres on the bus and then off again to put bags through security, take off belts etc.  Eventually onto the ferry. I chose club class lounge, because it’s #schoolholidays. And I ate some porridge,  wisely as it transpired, as it would be ten hours until I ate again.

From the ferry to Calais town is only about 20mins walk, but you would need a guidebook or map. I have Alison Raju on Kindle (and two others – I will ‘compare and contrast’ eventually.) Nevertheless I had trouble finding the start of the canal, but sorted it out eventually with a public street map.

When it comes to walking I’m a purist, but not a Puritan. I generally walk all the way, but I don’t need to always take the ‘historic’ or ‘original’ or ‘authentic’ route. And I’m not adverse to pragmatic shortcuts. But having said that I once in Spain took a 10km diversion to see a thorn from the Crown of Thorns. And any mention of a fromagerie artisanale is like a detour magnet to me. So today I had already decided not to go through Wissant, the ancient coastal ex-port to the west. Rather I headed down the much shorter route down the canal, and its branch, to Guines, mainly on a véloroute or cycle track. But no vélocipedistes today. Easter Monday seems to be taken very seriously in France. I had been misled by seeing a few bars and boulangèries open in Calais. But thereafter I found not a single establishment open. So no lunch in Guines.   And as I said no cyclists though I did see a couple walking. She was accompanied by a very chic tiny doglet with a ribbon and a little Easter bonnet. He had a grey parrot sitting on his hand. Vive le différence.

This is the area of the Field of Cloths of Gold of Henry VIII, but no sign of either although the road and footpaths bear the name. From Guines to Licques the recommended path is through a series of villages charmants, bringing you past a series of bars. This footpath is 3km longer than the road so I chose the D219 instead which was perfectly safe for walking. At one point I stood on a bridge and saw four Eurostars pass  during 9 minutes. The antithesis of slow walking.

Just one elderly man stopped me along the way to say hello. Which to be fair was 100% of the people I met (or 33.3% if you count dog lady and parrot man.) We spoke in French and he told me of his heart surgery which limits his ability to walk long distances now, but he can still cycle. A cheerful soul.

I reached Les Pommiers (the apple trees) campsite at 5:30pm (details on accommodation tab). Denis was most welcoming and keeps one chalet for pilgrims which could sleep five. Lovely to find somewhere pilgrim-aware and pilgrim-friendly. The onsite  brasserie opened 6-9pm and was particularly welcome, given my day of fasting.  Denis told me there are two seventy-five year old French men a few days ahead of me. And he told me hair-raising stories about the Great St Bernard Pass, which he visited many years ago. He has a friend who lives near it and he has seen dix metres of snow. We shall see.

(I plan to write something every day, but there is not always wifi at suitable moments.)