The White Cliffs Of Dover

Casey writes:

We knew that we only had four days to get from Marseille to Calais in order to catch the ferry to London. And so began our manic sightseeing frenzy which covered Nice, Monaco, Turin, Zermatt, Troyes and Reims.

It was absolutely pouring rain when we disembarked the ferry in Marseille. Our small umbrellas were fairly useless in shielding us AND all our bags from the wet, so we made a beeline for the car hire outlet from where we picked up the car that would be our transport for the next four days.

Arriving in Nice (still in the pouring rain) we discovered that the hostel we had booked which had advertised that it provided car parking, in fact did not. An hour and a half later, and a massive fee, and we finally secured an underground carpark in the middle of the city for the night. The grumpy half an hour walk back to the hostel in the rain wasn't my favourite moment of the trip!

We debated whether visiting Monaco was worth it. Of course it was! But was it worth another thirty minute walk through the teeming rain, combined with waiting at the bus stop for another twenty minutes? Yes! We travelled the short distance by bus along the coast as the sun was setting (at least I think it was setting behind the dense grey clouds, because it suddenly got dark), and arrived in Monaco in time for dinner. Well, we would have eaten dinner if we could have afforded it. The restaurants were well out of our price range, and had it not been pelting rain, we perhaps would have walked on until we found something more affordable. Instead, we opted to share an ice cream sundae (which, mind you, was still out of our price range), which tasted absolutely awesome, but also made us freezing cold given that we were still soaking wet from the rain. We tried to enter the Grand Casino, but the security guard took one look at us in our grubby wet clothes, identified us as backpackers instead of highflying gamblers, and we were 'encouraged' to visit the poor man's casino next door instead. Suffice to say, we didn't become millionaires by playing the pokies. But our fleeting visit to Monaco was certainly memorable.

Upon returning from Monaco, our short time in Nice was pleasant, mainly because the rain had finally stopped! We ambled through the old town and had a couple of drinks and photo stops, before collapsing into bed near midnight.

Up early the next morning, we headed out of France, and drove into Italy, enroute to the city of Turin. There was no official border crossing, and we only knew we'd crossed countries when the road signs started appearing in Italian (oh, and that it suddenly magically stopped raining). Once in Turin, our goal was to find San Giovanni Cathedral which houses the 'Shroud of Turin', and equally as importantly, to eat lunch. The cathedral was very pretty, and, although the shroud is rarely on display, we admired the replica and learned a lot from the information that was provided. The shroud was last on display in 2010 and will next be on public display for a couple of months in 2015 (who knows, we might make it back then). Lunch was an obligatory pizza before we headed back on the road, bound for Zermatt.

My goodness, Switzerland is stunning! Driving into the Swiss Alps, I had my eyes on the scenery as much as I did the road. The mountains took our breath away, and every kilometre we travelled had a mountainous landscape more beautiful than the previous. We stayed the night in Tasch, a small village with gorgeous old lodges, set in the middle of the mountain range. We had chosen this location as a launching point to get to Zermatt to view the Matterhorn. By dusk, it was zero degrees, a far cry from the 45+ degrees temperatures we were enduring only days earlier in Tunisia.

Zermatt itself is fantastic as well. A ski village for the incredibly cashed up people of the world, we couldn't justify staying overnight, but it was from here that we took a series of cable cars up to just below 4000m, to stand practically face to face with the Matterhorn. Words can't describe this mystical mountain that I have only previously seen pictures of in books. It is stunningly beautiful, and its unique shape means that it dominates the skyline, despite not being much taller than the surrounding peaks. We could see Mt Blanc in the distance, and we could have admired the panoramic views all day, if it wasn't so viciously cold! We were blessed with clear blue skies, making for some excellent photographs of the region.

Leaving Switzerland after only a brief 24 hour stint, we drove back into France and stayed the night in a lovely quaint town called Troyes. It was dark when we arrived, so our only activity for the night was to eat dinner and go to bed. We found a great little restaurant in the old town, housed in a building that was built in the 1400s. We couldn't leave France without eating the local cuisine, so my dinner consisted of escargot in garlic butter, and a plate of cheese, while Richard opted for tripe sausage. We wouldn't normally reach for a plate of snails, pork stomach and intestines, but hey, we were in France! And they were actually very tasty.

Our final day of driving through France took us through Reims. We thoroughly enjoyed the Notre Dame Cathedral (where many a French king was coronated), Palais du Tau and St Remi Basilica. We also perused the wine shops and emerged with an obligatory bottle of French champagne (you kind of have to when you're in the region of Champagne!)

Arriving in Calais in the late afternoon, we drove past an incredibly large gathering of African migrants attempting to secure a ferry passage to England while being monitored by a contingency of surrounding police. A few months ago we were laughing that the media was sensationalising this illegal immigrant issue, but now we are not so sure, as it did appear to be a very real and prominent situation in Calais. We returned the hire car safely and made it easily to our accommodation before dark. A short walk through Calais to admire the world heritage listed Beffroi de Calais (bell tower of the town hall), and a final French meal (and glass of champagne), before retiring to our hotel for our final night of our trip.

And finally, the moment arrived... early the next morning we boarded the ferry bound for Dover, and watched the white cliffs grow bigger and bigger in the distance. Our passage into England was seamless (the long tiring walk to the Dover train station wasn't), but we enjoyed our final train ride before emerging two hours later at Charing Cross Station in the heart of London. We were met by our friends Rosie and Gareth, who helped to make our arrival all the more significant. We were also met by heavy rain that set in for the entire afternoon (I would not have wanted to arrive in London any other way!) To Richard's delight, we ended up at a Wetherspoon's pub for lunch and drinks, before an extremely brief sight-seeing walk through London to Westminster station. 

Mission accomplished! What an amazing feeling! Nearly 70,000 kilometres and 31 countries, without a single flight.

And so our amazing journey has come to an end. We have learnt so much about the world, about ourselves, and about the basics of human nature. We have thousands of memories and have made many new friends. Now, London awaits, and we can start planning our next adventure, whatever that may be!

Happy Families And A Taste Of The Caribbean (Sort Of)

Richard writes:

We had a few days spare after the end of our Tunisian tour and our ferry leaving Tunis for Marseille. We mulled over options, and had a look on a hotels website for cheap hotels in the Tunis area. We had decided we had seen quite enough Roman ruins and just needed a few days to relax after what had been quite a stressful few weeks (more on that later), so we settled on staying at a resort just outside Tunis. Not any old resort though, oh no, a very special resort called "Caribbean World" (even though it makes no effort to appear or feel Caribbean). We saw the price, and thought it looked amazing, free food, free beer, free internet, private beach, several pools, water slides etc for about $35 a night. We then looked at the reviews . . . they didn't seem to match the glitz on the website however. My favourite review was:

"The hotel is below standard in everything. It needs to be knocked down and rebuilt."

There was countless other negative reviews referring to the poor food quality, how dirty the resort was and the rude staff. So what did we do? We booked! And we have no regrets. We have had a wonderfully relaxed and enjoyable time at Caribbean World, with walks on the beach, free beer at our beck and call and after all the countless negative reviews regarding the restaurant, the food was amazing! A huge amount of variety of dishes in the bay maries, that was tasty and full of veggies (which we have lacked for much of our whole trip). It seems we were not the only guests enjoying the food. During lunch we spotted a woman scooping colossal amounts of food into countless tupperware containers, in full view of the restaurant staff. Nobody seemed to care, so she carried on filling her boxes with enthusiasm presumably to feed her family for the next month! 

Our actual room was basic, but clean, and more than enough for our needs, and considerably better than most of the rooms we have stayed in on our trip. The shower also deserves a special mention, as the quality of showering facilities in the past seven months has in general, been pretty poor, with warm water showers few and far between. However, at Caribbean World the shower was awesome, not that our exertions laying on sun loungers or drinking beer had worked up much of a sweat, the quality shower was very much appreciated all the same! Thank you Caribbean World, you were exactly what we needed after the previous 11 days on our Tunisian tour.

Ok, to start with I will start with the positives of the tour, of which there were many. Tunisia is blessed with some absolutely beautiful Roman ruins, of which we saw numerous examples. Some of which, Casey dealt with in her last blog. Each ruin site had its own characteristics, which made each one worth visiting. For example, the ruins at Sbeitla had a hugely impressive forum, with three largely intact temples at its head. Bulla Regia on the other hand, though not as impressive in terms of structures had fantastic underground houses with brilliantly preserved mosaics. It is difficult to believe that these sites have stayed so well preserved after, in some cases over two thousand years of decay. In my opinion however, the most impressive site was Dougga. There was an impressive amphitheatre, as well as temples, a brothel, as well as countless other structures still remaining. The site was absolutely huge, which we were lucky enough to visit early in the morning, to avoid the afternoon's heat. 

Dougga

Sbeitla

As an extra to our scheduled itinerary, our guide Mohammed, fitted in a visit to a World War II cemetery called Medjez El Bab, filled with mainly British dead. I had no idea that so many casualties had been sustained in North Africa during the war. I am still a little ignorant of the significance that North Africa played in the World War II, but the Tunisians have certainly maintained the cemeteries beautifully, as is the case wherever I have seen war cemeteries around the world.

Tunisia also provided us with a first for this trip. During our trip to the historic town of Le Kef, we were followed everywhere we went by an armed unit of security guards. Upon departure from our hotel to a restaurant in the city, our bus was escorted by security, and the next day we were flanked as we walked around the historic city as well as when we visited the supermarket to buy our lunch! The city was very close to the border with Algeria, and we guessed the increased security was as a result of kidnapping and killing of a French tourist in Algeria the week before. It felt slightly strange to be followed in this way, but I guess if it made the Tunisians feel happier about our safety, then it was a good thing!

Le Kef

Mohammed our guide was a really good guy. He spoke excellent English and was extremely keen to look after the group and deliver whatever we wanted. We did however, have plenty of misunderstandings that often led the group to get frustrated with him. From our point of view though, it was obvious he was trying, despite the growing frustrations from the group, that seemed to get more grumpy and whiney as the tour went on. Our tolerance for the group reduced day by day, and by the last day, the group spirit had completely fractured, making the last night meal an interesting affair. To help give an idea of the level of dysfunctionality of the group by the end of the tour, I will describe some of the events that happened in the last 48 hours together:

- The tour leader told us he required all his powers of restraint not hit one of the more elderly members of the group in the face with his mobile phone. This was after he made a special effort to give us more time than we had had in other places to show us the beautiful town of Sidi Bou Said, and being told it was too long as she wanted to swim in the pool at the hotel. The poor guy was trying so hard, but whatever he did didn't satisfy people and his efforts seemed to be greeted with a chorus of moans at every turn.

Sidi Bou Said

- The princess of the group, accused (completely ridiculously) the tour leader of stealing our tip money kitty. The same girl earlier in the tour had demanded to be driven over 100km to a better hotel as the one we were staying in (which happened to be one of the most interesting hotels I have ever stayed in, as it was carved into rock, with a cave for each room) had no water to wash with as the whole village's water was out. She was also heard wailing to the guide that "these people will steal from us" during one excursion. "These people" basically being Tunisian, and therefore in her thinly veiled racist eyes, were no better than common thieves. She also didn't utter a word to anyone at the final group meal, preferring instead to play with her mobile phone.

-  We also had it reported to us that once back in England, one of the group told another member to "f*** off" eight times during their farewell at Heathrow airport (four of the group flew back on the same flight to London from Tunis).

The negativity amongst almost everybody drove us absolutely crazy, and when we realised we were free of the group on the final morning before getting a taxi to Caribbean World, we felt the tension drain from us and we felt a tangible sigh of relief. The moral of the tale being; do not take tours which rich English people go on, as all they do is moan and moan, even when there is nothing to moan about, and they annoyed the crap out of us.

Caribbean World, restored our faith in the world, ready for it to be tested again on the 21 hour ferry ride to Marseille from Tunis. The amalgam of refugee camp scenes and screaming babies await, but once it is all over we will be in France, ready for a final four day assault of Europe before we reach London after over seven months on the road (or water, or tracks etc, but never the air). Goodbye Tunisia . . . London here we come!