It all began with a programmed meeting over in the UK. I was issued a pool car, a Ford Mondeo, which
I was to take with me instead of my own.
It was quite a well equipped car but a little unfamiliar. I also obtained a Tom Tom as it had no
inbuilt navigation. I left my car at the
Motor Transport section and carried out the necessary checks and paperwork
before getting on the road, it was just after lunchtime when I left and I had
about 2 hours to get to the tunnel.
The journey was pretty routine and I managed to get to the
tunnel and through check in on time, but no time to stop for a comfort break,
straight onto the train and off. This
was good, I was making quick progress.
That was about to change.
On getting through the tunnel I got on to the M20 and
started towards London, I needed to be round to the North and I could choose
either direction on the M25, normally.
Unknown to me there had been an accident, a five vehicle pile up that
had two fatalities. The anti-clockwise
route was therefore blocked and I was stuck in queues going in the opposite
direction. The added problem was that
this traffic would eventually try and join the M25 later on, most of it going
West but some going East and this was compounded by the bottleneck that is the
Dartford Crossing. In all I was delayed
maybe by an extra 1 ½ hours. I had
arrived in England at around 15.20 and got to my destination at 19.00 (after
stopping once).
The accommodation I had, provided by the Service, was pretty
sparse. I had forgotten to bring a
towel, which used to be supplied in the good old days, added to that was the
fact that the bed had not been made, there were no tea/coffee facilities and no
phone signal. Maybe I expect too much…
My meeting was the following day and I was up early at 06.30
to get ready (I had bought a rather poor towel from a nearby shop). I was at breakfast around 07.00 and then off
to work around 08.30. The meeting was
useful and we finished about 12.30, time for a quick lunch and off on the road. A bit later than planned but plenty of time
to catch the 17.06 Eurotunnel.
I listened to the radio and saw the electronic warning signs
but to be frank, there was no useful information. I could have called friends and remained in
the London area had I known what I was about to endure. As I approached the Eurotunnel terminal, the
exit was closed. I carried on past this,
along with all of the other traffic, to the following exit, which allowed an
alternative means of access. I need say
no more than this; it took two hours to get from the slip road to the check in
and that was just the start. The screens
indicated an unspecified problem and that the likely delay was up to 5 hours,
from check in! I got some food and took
a comfort break before then investigating the possibility of travelling the
following day. On the screens the offer
was made to travel the following day complimentary and have a refund for the
journey today. I joined the long queue
for customer service, with my own plan to get into a hotel. In short this was not possible and by the
time I got to the desk the offer of ferry tickets had dried up, there was no
choice but to sit it out. The time in
the queue was enlivened by the attempted queue jumping and my robust responses
to these pointless efforts. A Polish
man attempted to pretend the woman in front was holding his place, but she
reacted furiously to this, she was clearly feeling quite upset about the whole
thing. I was irritable but resigned to
the fact that there was nothing much to be done, I told him to get back in the
queue properly. He did try and ask if I
would keep his place, which drew protests from behind. I told him just to queue up or go and do
something else.
I felt for those who were embarking on their holidays and had young kids, despite the overwhelming noise and annoyance of people in general in these circumstances, I tried to remain calm. There was a point where a boy of about 10, who looked like he had some form of physical disability, he had a rather elongated forehead and it was one of those things where you felt quite self-concious that you may be staring and that you shouldn't. Anyway, he kept wanting to get his dad's attention by repeatedly saying 'dad' and , with the tiredness the irritability, this was accentuated beyond reasonable levels and I was so very close to shouting out 'FFS pay attention to your son!' I didn't, I just moved around the terminal to find another annoying human being that I felt was worthy of punching. Amazingly enough the Eurotunnel team thought that it would be a great idea to have one of their staff dressed as the Easter Bunny during this utter chaos, I mean when were the cheerleaders coming on? I was surprised that the bunny did not get decked or become road kill...
The queue jumping was also rife in the car park by the time
I got to the border control point. I had
arrived at the slip road at around 15.46 and I boarded the train at about
22.50. With the shift in hour I was
across and off the other side after midnight.
I had to drive to work to drop the pool car off and pick up my own car. I was on auto pilot and I did not stop for
the 1hr 50min journey, trying to focus on the speed limits in force as I
drove. Normally when you return the pool
car you must refuel it, I did so on site and just to make life that bit more
testing, there was a fine mist like rain with a stiff cold breeze. I did not have a jacket and so was trying to
dip my head into this irritating mini-storm as I refuelled the car. It was not over yet…
On taking the car back to the Motor Transport section I
quickly transferred the kit over to my car got myself established and began the
homeward leg of about an hour, it was maybe 1.20 ish. As I drove off I had not gone far when I
noticed a note on my car windscreen. I
stopped to remove it and it said 'Check your tyre pressure?' A quick inspection of the tyres revealed my
offside rear was completely flat, I was too tired to swear. In the rain and wind I shifted the gear from
the boot to the rear seats, got the jack and space saving tyre out. I efficiently changed this tyre in about 5
minutes and after a quick inspection of the damaged tyre I quickly found the
screw, protruding from the tread, at least it was repairable! I threw the tyre in the back and got
under-way. The only snag now was that I
was limited to 80kph on my trip back.
Almost double the time I would otherwise take and having to be very wary
of the idiots who would be approaching my rear at speed and not realising until
the last moment that they needed to change lanes, that included large lorries. More than a few came close but I was going so
slowly I could have done the Times crossword and kept a decent watch, good job
I was not tired after a 7 hour delayed journey to get home…
To make matters a bit more interesting there was an accident
that straddled both carriageways, thankfully I managed to drive through it and
no traffic had built up. I believe the
driver of the Audi had run into some motorway maintenance men and thankfully
they looked ok. I finally pulled in at
03.50 around 21 hours after I had risen that morning. Sunrise was not far away and I could not
sleep through. It is like having jet
lag.
As I drove back I was thinking about the fatalities the
previous day and I kept thinking that, although this was a very long an
inconvenient day, at least I was alive and heading home. They do say that worse things happen at sea
and given the recent tragedy with the Korean ferry, this does seem to have an
element of truth to it.
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