Well to continue on i made it aboard the fine vessel that would bring me across the channel......aparently it is the cheapest way for a mear 15.2 lbs.........ouch......but thats cool just get me to the other side.......which was a misake.....i think i was so caught up with the fact i was making great headway that i just kept pluggin away........so i bought the ticket at 7 and the guy said if i were quick i could catch the 7 o clock boat if i were quick.......i never heard it leave and no anouncments of last call but i had to wait for my boat at 745......no biggie......so as soon as i got on i busted out my food i had bought and made myself a grand little meal......then the boat finally got going around 8, a little late but all good......so the ride is about an hr and half and do to the choppy waters it was about 945 we arrived.......in looking at the help desk for info on calia it seemed france was & hr ahead........ah another hr lost......by the time we were unloaded and i had put some pnants on and used the bathroom it was late.......walking out there was a irish guy sitting there fairly clean cut and inocent looking but the half drank wine bottle next to him gave his idenity away.......he questioned where i was going to sleep and i commented i had no clue......i would have said this if i had a place to stay or not.....but it hit me......it is 1115 and i have nowhere to go.....no buses in site, no train station.....only this indutrialized port that promised little hope of finding a secure place to pitch my tent.......as i walked i had not consittered loosing so much time and should have stayed so,ewhere on the countryside of dover where it looked beautiful, rural, safe, even homelike.......here in calais it was dark, all i could see was indutrial plants and a run down town.....even the seagulls looked like vultures about to prey on my thoughtlessness.......sigh......i had no choice but to trek on......the question was to make for the outskirts of town to find forest or to head in town and try my luck there......so as i am walking i come across a man who is also looking lost.....well i must say i am out in nowhere and feeling quite skeptical of his presence.......he apparently has done this many times but during the day and there are no more buses running and so he must find the train station.......it was clear i would not loose him because we are headed in the same direction......so i agree to walk with him but i am not about to let my guard down......in fact my treking pole was in hand just in case and i would not allow him to fall behind me, keeping hi, in front of me so i could watch his every move.....now that didnt mean i had to be rude so i didnt mind chatting a bit......his story got crazier when he said he was a doctor......now first he said he had been one for 10 yrs......then i asked him why he must travel as he was and he claimed it was his new hrs at work and because of his training.......but yet he had been a doctor for 10 yrs.....it didnt add up.....though he was a surgon and yeh that takes a long time (really long time :-P ) it didnt seem right.......my new friend ih-hock (phenetically spelt) was making me more and more aprehensive.......but who knows maybe the 10 yrs included his schooling as well cause a 10 yr residency for general surgon seems steep.......so new topic: kids u got any.....yeh.....how many......3.......how old.......hummm well lets see.....ummmmmm........again weird.....u should know how old the little ones are.......finally he came up with some numbers......then we walked in silence for a bit......at a intersection there was a sign it said camping, i was saved.....oh thank goodnesss.......i will sleep there open or not i am sure i could blend in.......upon closer inspection of the sign it included an arrow and 10K after it.......ummmm 10 from my cross country days i remember that as 5 and pushing 6 miles......now in my best shape i run 3.1 in 20 minutes let alone walk double that.......presently i have had a really long day of walking, a blister forming, 40lbs on my back, and the look of the street i needed to follow was not lite like the one ih-hock and i were on......and though i was quite skeptical of my traveling companion he was a body and two people look more intimidating then one......i decided to go into town with him......what gave me comfort was his eagarness to keep going with or without me which made me think he was lejit.......so we kept walking fairly silently.....the town was run down and not in good shape making it look very uninviting......he questioned where i would stay in town and i had little for an answer