Two countries in one day ... ooo lala

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Its no secret I like to walk or that it's really just a way for me to explore the world around, I especially love it when that walking gives me an excuse to flee the UK for a couple of days. When a hiking weekend was posted for Bray-Dune in Flandres, north France got posted for the weekend before my birthday I decided to adopt it as my abroad weekend to celebrate the passage of the years (well they don't actualy pass as much as swirl in a subjective non linear numerical way!).

Bray-Dune is a sleepy seaside town north of Dunkerque, the last bastian of France before the wide beach and rolling sand dunes give way to Belgium. This wide beach was the site of heavy casualties in WWII being one of the many parts of this area involved in the Miracle of Dunkirk in 1940 when the British forces were evacuated from France.

Ahhhhhh France, land of cheese, meat, bread, croissants and vin rouge ... all good, all tasty and all in my tummy by the end of the weekend. France would easily be one of my favourite countries in the world, can't speak much of the language and when I do use my limited vocabulary, noone can understand me anyway, but I do like to pretend and a bit of 'allo 'allo attitude never goes astray.

The offer came to travel over with Geoff & Eti, our beloved organisers, so early on the Friday it was around the M25 to Dover for the channel crossing with the view of the white cliffs at my back and the promise of a cracking weekend in France ahead shared with the usual crew of my favourites Blue, Danielle and Thaik. They are so reliable with at least one of them turning up on nearly every trip I do ... it rocks!.

The weekend was so relaxing. My friday was the ferry over, grocery shopping and Moule Frites for dinner before sneaking in a nap before the minibus and the rest of the crew arrived. Saturday we waled up the beach to Belgium, through the sand dunes, had coffee then walked back through French sand dunes, shower, beers on the beach front then dinner. Sunday was a rather poor game of rugby (if you are Australian) then a run to the chocolate shop before heading off to Bergues a small walled town kind of on the way back to Dunkerque.

Lucky it was small as we kept getting distracted by taking photos and losing the group. We always found them eventually. Bergues is a lovely little town and was the perfect end to the weekend before farewelling the minibus and a quick dinner in Dunkerque before the return ferry and long trip home. I'm doing this trip again next year.

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