Tuesday 28.06.2011 - we reached the Eurotunnel terminal at Calais around 11.30 am and picked up our tickets for the 21 mile chunnel trip under the English Channel for our return to England.



As we queued up we found ourselves waiting with four English bikers. They were all retired guys that made us feel young! That means they were really old b*****s! They had set off from their homes in Yorkshire yesterday to ride the Alps for 8 days. Unfortunately after one night in France one of them suffered a middle ear infection and lost his sense of balance. Not a good thing if you are riding a motorbike.


They decided that since one was off colour, all four would return home. After we were loaded onto the chunnel train, one of the old boys pulled out a mouth organ and played Waltzing Matilda, much to Kerrie's delight.


The chunnel trip is just great. You ride your bike onto the train and stand beside it for the entire 30 minute trip. Its just not worth walking up to the lounge to sit down because as soon as you are there its time to get back to the bike for off loading.


We decided to spend the night in Folkestone which is only about 5 miles from the chunnel terminal as we thought we needed to do some laundry and catch up on our emails and banking etc. Kerrie booked on line the Hotel Great Burstin at 45 pound per night (about $65). Pretty good for England and that included a full English breakfast (read grease on toast).


Sounded good and looked even better on line. In 2004 we had stayed in a hotel we could only remember as being "a big white building near a marina with a huge tide change". We couldn't remember where it was, but Kerrie thought it may have been in Folkestone. Greg thought not. We both however agreed it was a dive.

Anyway on riding around the corner, sure enough, a big white building near a marina presented itself! b*****! We were booked into the dive! To be fair it had been updated a bit since 2004 and was value for money. Its a part of a chain of hotels built probably just after WW2 for the masses to have a sea side holiday, much like a Butlins holiday camp famous in England decades ago. We found our laundromat, did the washing and then went looking for someplace to eat. We finally settled for a pub meal that turned out to be quite tasty.


On arrival we noticed the tide was out and this meant all the boats in the marina were laying on their side on the mud bank. By about 8 pm when we were walking back from dinner the tide had come back in, a rise of several metres. We took before and after shots because its surprising for us from down under just quick and high/low the tide is when it changes.


At breakfast the next morning we discovered the joys of food prepared en mass; it filled the tummy but was tastless. We also noticed that of the 100 or so people eating in the dining room, we were the young ones! It was full of oldies!

We figured that it must be the rule that once you get old in England that you have to come on a seaside holiday to a hotel for the masses. Glad we live down under.