Day Fifeteen Saturday Fish & Chips and the Lost Radio

As we travelled further than we had expected yesterday we get the chance of a bit of a lie in today. There is no breakfast in the hotel so Truckdoctor puts the burners on and we have a breakfast of tea and coffee and a mixture of biscuits from everyone’s vehicles. This is what happens on convoy everyone shares from tea or coffee to milk and biscuits all provisions are thrown into the pot for everyone to dip into.

After that it’s a short trip to the ferry port, it only takes us about an hour or so to get to the ferry port. We left in plenty of time in case we hit any traffic around Amsterdam, but as is always the case we hit no traffic problems at all and are early to the ferry port.

Getting early to the ferry port is not a problem as we still have a couple of things we need to do. All the radios, toll boxes and toll receipts need to be collected from each vehicle. This is always difficult as sometimes things get swapped between vans. After the round up we find that one of the radios and one of the toll boxes are missing, everyone is dispatched back to their vehicles to search once more. The toll box is found on Convoy Leaders van after another search but there is still no trace of the radio. We take the decision to have lunch and then we will all check our vehicles for a third time. There is a really good chippy at the ferry port which is also a fish shop as well, so in we all pile and order fish and chips or in some cases just chips and mayonnaise.

We all return to our vehicles for a further search for the one last remaining radio, suddenly the shout goes up that it has been found. Where had it been found, it was found once again on Convoy Leaders vehicle (good job we are no longer handing out medals).

Then it’s up to the ferry terminal to see if we can get onto the ferry early. One convoy driver is dispatched to go on as a foot passenger, as these usually go on before the freight does. Francis (The Pilgrims) is dispatched for this role; we do this so that they can book the table for all 20 drivers to sit down together in the restaurant. The restaurants on board are very busy and part of the ferry price includes a buffet style meal for the convoy drivers. But before we know it we are being directed onto the boat, we drive on and are in the Drivers Lounge tucking into pastries and drinking tea and coffee well before Francis gets on board. We still cannot book the restaurant though as there is no one there to take the booking (the best laid plans of convoy).

We manage to sort out the restaurant and we all sit down for our final meal together, it is both a happy and sad time for the drivers, sad because tomorrow we will be separated from new and old friends that we have been together with for the last 15 days. Happy because we have met these friends and been involved in a great journey delivering aid to many needy children, happy because tomorrow we shall return home.

The ferry crossing is a choppy one and everyone on the boat looks drunk, it is a task to get your food back to your table without dropping any, banging into someone or tripping over a table. Some retire early to bed as their sea legs aren’t quite up to the task while some sit and chat awhile about their experiences over the last two weeks and their final leg of the journey tomorrow.

Not long to go now and see ya soon

Paul (one half of the big bopper)