Good News & Bad News!

Saturday, 29th August, 2015.
Somerset, England.

Last Saturday, 22nd August was not the best day we've ever had!!  The good news is that we are both well...the bad news is that Boris is not! 

While driving on the Picardy coast from St Valery-sur-Somme to le Crotoy in the morning, and for no reason apparent to us, we came upon three or four cars stopped in a haphazard fashion on the road ahead with no warning, brake or hazard lights visible and to avoid colliding with them, which would have caused damage to the vehicles and certain injuries or worse to their occupants, we swerved and thankfully, narrowly missed them all.   Unfortunately, we rolled down an embankment and slowly and gently came to rest on the passenger side of the vehicle.  The windscreen smashed and popped out and this was our escape route...a couple of young men immediately appeared, helped us out of the vehicle and having ascertained that we were both okay and not in need of medical assistance, phoned the police.  Two policemen arrived shortly after, took details and waited while Mike phoned "Boris's" insurers (a lengthy process), a tow truck was called and duly arrived, Boris was pulled to an upright position and then towed onto the back of the truck while the policemen held up the traffic and we then rode in the truck to a lock up garage where he is now resting, pending further investigation by the insurers...he is now in their hands.  It could have been so much worse, thankfully no-one was hurt...we both suffered from delayed shock and found sleep elusive for several nights, but are now beginning to catch up and are otherwise fit and well.

Since the 'mishap', we have been absolutely overwhelmed by the kindness shown to us by total strangers...our 'rescuers', our policemen who once again stopped the traffic (during their afternoon patrol through the town) to ask if we were okay, the tow truck driver, the many cyclists, French and English, who stopped to ask if we were okay and offered assistance, Orlane in le Crotoy tourist office who helped us so willingly with enquiries, Madame in the B&B where we stayed on Saturday and Sunday, 

Lily, a fellow guest on holiday from Belgium with her husband Luke, who became our interpreter when our "holiday" French which normally gets us by proved insufficient and who even offered to drive us and all our goods and chattels to England!, and the very lovely Severene, housemaid at the B&B who drove us to the station to catch the Calais train and looked after some of our belongings until we returned from Dover, where we hired a transit van to transport everything to Somerset and ultimately, home. 

It has been a long week with a train ride on Monday afternoon to Calais to catch the channel ferry to Dover, stopping overnight there, collecting a hire van early on Tuesday,  catching a morning ferry back to Calais then driving to le Crotoy, loading the van with all our possessions and driving back to Calais to ferry back to Dover for a second overnight stop.  On Wednesday morning, after hot showers and a full English breakfast expertly cooked by B&B owner George, we set off for the five hour drive to Somerset, getting caught up in a seven mile long traffic jam on the M25 followed by at times heavy rain for much of the way.  Needless to say, by the time we arrived here we both, but particularly Mike who has done all the driving, were absolutely exhausted. 

In the last few days we have been extremely well looked after by wonderful friends Mike and Marion.  We have now sorted through all our 'stuff', some of which has gone to charities, some will go home with us.  We've talked to Boris's insurers and our travel insurers and tried to change our flights home but are unable to do so as the fares we bought were an 'Earlybird' special which won't allow any changes at all.  We can book and pay for other flights but they would cost a lot of money which we probably would not be able to recoup so we will stick with our original departure date.  For the next couple of weeks we will go out and about by hire car or public transport, destinations as yet undecided...at the moment we are feeling very relaxed though incredibly sad that our 2015 European adventure ended sooner than expected...the plus is that it all happened towards the end of the trip rather than at the beginning....the minus is that Boris is now resting forlornly in a garage in France, waiting for the insurance assessors to determine his fate.  He has given us three wonderful holidays and deserved a better ending...if it is to be an ending!