Quirky Camping

Last night I stayed at the beautiful
forest campsite in Holland just over the border from Germany. When I arrived and was deciding which pitch to take, these two small caravans arrived with a couple of old guys driving the tractors. Hilarious! I was dying to take pictures, but waited until I was out on my early-morning walk this morning.

Later today I asked the guy at the reception about them and he said that they come every year, driving across the border from Germany - coming all the way on back roads, riding their vintage tractors and pulling their caravans. The wooden one reminded me of a 'tiny house' of the tiny house movement. There is some kind of vintage fair on locally and these guys bring their vintage tractors to that every year, though one of them comes and camps here more regularly. (This also reminded me of this lovely movie 'The Straight Story' - about a man who travels cross country on his ride-on mower to see his estranged brother.)

I had an amazing morning walk during the sunrise. (See Extra photo) I wasn't expecting anything spectacular but even in the forest the sunrise is beautiful. An army of spiders had been hard at work all night and there were what looked like hundreds of cobwebs all over the carpet of heather.

The only thing I had to do today was drive about 2.5 hours to Hoek Van Holland for the 10pm ferry back to the UK. I decided I would do the ferry this time and save myself a big stretch of driving down to Calais. I only did the Eurotunnel because it was easier with Dolly, but now that she is no longer with me, I am free to do other options.

Because the campsite wasn't busy, they said I was welcome to stay here all day. The campsite also runs High Ropes courses and other adventure activities, so I enjoyed watching some of that near to my pitch. I also relaxed in the sun, had another walk, got ready for the ferry and just before I left had a final treat at the very nice restaurant next door to the campsite - I had had dinner there when we'd stayed here last time, but I definitely needed to try their dessert menu this time! So I treated myself to a waffle with ice cream and warm cherry sauce. Scrumptious!

I left about 4pm - probably a bad time to drive to the port - traffic was heavy most of the way but I still made it in plenty of time. This was a whole new experience for me - I've only done very short ferries before now and never a cruise, so getting a cabin and sleeping on a big boat was a huge novelty factor for me! I booked a basic cabin for 2 but was given a rather large one that slept 5! I wandered around a bit checking out the facilities - several restaurants and bars, a cinema, and even a basketball court! But my priority tonight was to get some good sleep so once we were on our way it was off to bed for me!