It was a lovely, quiet night until just before 5 am when the
roar of a motorbike announced the arrival of the first of 40 or 50 Harley
Davidsons. I love the throaty sound of these bikes but not at five o’clock in
the morning! A member of the port staff took up position just behind Henrietta
and directed all incoming cars and motorbikes to the correct lane for booking
in. We didn’t hear the cars or the directions for them but I can tell you that
all the Harley Davidsons were directed to lane 26. The directions had to be
shouted so that the riders could hear over the engine noise and the van
literally vibrated with the bass note. The last bike arrived, late, at 06:15,
just 15 minutes before we had to get up for our ferry. Needless to say, we
didn’t get any sleep after 05:00.
The option of staying at Poole port is a very good one but, if you are thinking of taking it, make sure that there are no planned Harley Davidson meets in the Channel Islands!
The ferry crossing was really calm and the journey out of Poole Harbour, passing very close to Brownsea Island, was a delight. We arrived on-time at Cherbourg and were lucky to be the fourth vehicle off the ferry. Unlike most of the vehicles that headed straight down the Cherbourg peninsular, we turned West and headed for the ‘Ruines Megalithique les Pouquelees’ shown on our map. When we arrived there, we found that the ruins were at the top of a hill that we couldn’t drive up. It was well after lunchtime and, given that we had been awake since 5 am and were hungry, we decide to follow the sign to the ‘pic-nique’ area 300m away in Vauville. This turned to be right by the beach with stunning views in all directions, a wonderful location for lunch. We watched interesting birds having their lunch on the beach and fishing boats catching other people’s lunch whilst the shadows of small, fluffy white clouds chased each other over the sea and sand – magical. And then we had a fly-past of a WWII aircraft, probably a Spitfire.
As we drove out of Vauville, we passed an interesting-looking church, chateau and botanical gardens. We noted that we needed to plot a return visit for a more detailed investigation.
On then to Le Haye-du-Puits where we had identified an aire du camping-car. It is not the most salubrious of aires, being part lorry park and part car park with a very uneven surface. It was also very busy when we arrived and, hoping that most of the cars would leave later, we left the van in an unsuitable position and headed off to investigate the town. It is pleasant enough but not spectacularly interesting. I suspect that much of the town was destroyed during the allied invasion at the end of WWII but the church was still intact and worth visiting.
We moved the van into a more suitable position but the car park was still very busy and it was only in the late evening when we returned from eating out in the town that the car park had cleared. Photos: View from our picnic spot at Vauville; Vauville beach.
The option of staying at Poole port is a very good one but, if you are thinking of taking it, make sure that there are no planned Harley Davidson meets in the Channel Islands!
The ferry crossing was really calm and the journey out of Poole Harbour, passing very close to Brownsea Island, was a delight. We arrived on-time at Cherbourg and were lucky to be the fourth vehicle off the ferry. Unlike most of the vehicles that headed straight down the Cherbourg peninsular, we turned West and headed for the ‘Ruines Megalithique les Pouquelees’ shown on our map. When we arrived there, we found that the ruins were at the top of a hill that we couldn’t drive up. It was well after lunchtime and, given that we had been awake since 5 am and were hungry, we decide to follow the sign to the ‘pic-nique’ area 300m away in Vauville. This turned to be right by the beach with stunning views in all directions, a wonderful location for lunch. We watched interesting birds having their lunch on the beach and fishing boats catching other people’s lunch whilst the shadows of small, fluffy white clouds chased each other over the sea and sand – magical. And then we had a fly-past of a WWII aircraft, probably a Spitfire.
As we drove out of Vauville, we passed an interesting-looking church, chateau and botanical gardens. We noted that we needed to plot a return visit for a more detailed investigation.
On then to Le Haye-du-Puits where we had identified an aire du camping-car. It is not the most salubrious of aires, being part lorry park and part car park with a very uneven surface. It was also very busy when we arrived and, hoping that most of the cars would leave later, we left the van in an unsuitable position and headed off to investigate the town. It is pleasant enough but not spectacularly interesting. I suspect that much of the town was destroyed during the allied invasion at the end of WWII but the church was still intact and worth visiting.
We moved the van into a more suitable position but the car park was still very busy and it was only in the late evening when we returned from eating out in the town that the car park had cleared. Photos: View from our picnic spot at Vauville; Vauville beach.
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