The end

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And so the last day was here. We were up and at em, leaving on time as planned (still can't get used to that bit) and heading the hour and a half north to Dieppe. The second surprise was that google maps person was a boy. And then a girl. And then a boy, not sure what was going on there! We made it in plenty of time, getting confused by the 'new to us' port but after a few interesting bridges/junctions/turns we were waiting patiently in the queue. We made friends with a dexter lookalike called Simba (it was all we could do not to 'accidentally' put him in our car) and watched as several people 'forgot' to get on their cars in time to board! This time we made sure to remember exactly where the car was and thankfully only had 2 flights of stairs to get to the seating area. We bedded in and got to people watching. There were many to watch but the top 3 were..... Family 1: mum appeared to be 20, was probably 40 but definitely too cool for schoool and decidedly middle class, child centred parenting school. With her mum and 2 angelically voiced kids (honestly, think of the perfect disney voice for a 6 year old and these kids were it) who sadly seemed to wind each other up with older (William) doing a very good job of making younger (Ed) scream very loudly at intervals and be taken off by 'granny' for a chat. At one point Seth, disconcerted by the screams said 'that little boy isn't on his best behaviour is he mummy ' ?? family 2: man, woman, early 50s, teenage boy. Boy and dad barely lived but mum, as soon as she sat down rolled up one trouser leg and spent the rest of the journey (4 hours, 4 actual hours) picking away at a scab (admittedly large and impressive) on her knee with just a short break for lunch and another to roll up her other leg and have a quick pick of a smaller one on that knee! Family 3: saw them in front of us in the queue when 6 of them got out of a quite small, quite old (j reg camper) and then again on the boat. Mum and dad looked far too young to have 4 teenage kids . So very right on (bandanas , hessian, long hair etc etc) but so very prepared, they bought actual full on boxed board games in with them and sarnies in foil and a cool bag. A little bit in awe of their preparedness!
Despite it being a gentle sea for some reason Ash and I felt quite queasy so on one of our 'time for a fresh air break' Ash took Seth for a walk. I stayed with the stuff and, noticing a mass exodus, looked out of the window and saw loads of dolphins surfing the waves, just beautiful. Ash came back and told me all about the sign he'd been looking at about the dolphins in the channel and was a tad miffed that he'd been looking at a sign exactly as I saw the real thing!
Dead on time we landed, showed our covid form to the customs men and then got a little scared by this unfamiliar port and some equally odd roads. Tea in the hotel and time for bed to finish what has been a really lovely, really happy break from the crazy

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