As Any Ideas

[r4dent]

My wife was take off the Bilbao / Portsmouth ferry by ambulance and in hospital for 7 days . Now discharged. MoHo on Bilbao dock but no ferry Spain / Uk until November! Plan is to
drive to Calais (trailer so 80 kph max) than ferry or tunnel to UK.

Q1 Any other solutions.
Q2 How many hours to Calais s

 

[alcam]

My wife was take off the Bilbao / Portsmouth ferry by ambulance and in hospital for 7 days . Now discharged. MoHo on Bilbao dock but no ferry Spain / Uk until November! Plan is to
drive to Calais (trailer so 80 kph max) than ferry or tunnel to UK.

Q1 Any other solutions.
Q2 How many hours to Calais s

Rotten luck , hope she is ok .
No ferries , or vacancies , from any of the Spanish ports ?
Check other , more southerly , French ports .
If booking Dieppe , and over 60 , remember to phone to get 20% discount .
Time to Calais ? Satnav and google maps are pretty accurate . In the circumstances I'd be inclined to use toll roads

 

[daygoboy]

St Malo nearest but not so frequent.
Should take couple of long days of driving to get to Calais, as
Alcam suggests, take the tolls in view of the circumstances, or
at least around the larger cities.
Could park up in a campsite by the most convenient airport with flights
back home then come back solo for the van, just depends on how
desperate you are of course.

 

[r4dent]

St Malo nearest but not so frequent.
Should take couple of long days of driving to get to Calais, as
Alcam suggests, take the tolls in view of the circumstances, or
at least around the larger cities.
Could park up in a campsite by the most convenient airport with flights
back home then come back solo for the van, just depends on how
desperate you are of course.

Thanks guys. No spaces on any ferry from Spain. Brittany Ferry are a ship down for operational reasons. Thought about S France ports but nearly as far as Calais and not as many crossings. Prefer the drive to leaving. MoHo to mercy of illegals in Bilbo.

 

[QFour]

We have driven through France in 3 Days coming down to Spain but always take longer going back. The route we use is straight forward and misses out the toll roads. It’s just as quick because you can only drive so far in a day before you get tired. If you are on toll roads you have to get off them to find an Aire. We have seen MHs with trailers on Aires they just keep out of everyone’s way. Not a lot of campsite are going to be open in France this time of year.

If you are heading for Calais you will go through Rouen. The underpasses at some intersections are designed for cars ONLY ...

 

[mid4did]

Just the thought of coming off at dover then over 100 miles of average speed cameras would drive me to drink.
If it were me I,d do roscoff plymouth or caen portsmouth anyday.
No need for high tolls to calais though.
Minimum tolls

 

[daygoboy]

Thanks guys. No spaces on any ferry from Spain. Brittany Ferry are a ship down for operational reasons. Thought about S France ports but nearly as far as Calais and not as many crossings. Prefer the drive to leaving. MoHo to mercy of illegals in Bilbo.

I for one thought you were fairly desperate to get home. St Malo is the closest, the sailing timetable could coincide with your plans, half a day driving saved, versus going to Calais. My van is slow but once or twice had to get back ASAP from southern Spain, the Irun to Calais leg took me about IIRC 17 hours driving over 2 days, with no faffing around looking for off the RN or other main road aires or campsites. Normally takes me 3 weeks!
St Malo crossing can cost an arm and leg these days, and
apart from the Dieppe Newhaven so can the others, as compared
with good old Calais or Dunkerque

 

[r4dent]

Wife has a wound that needs redressing every 4 days. So dress on Monday on Bilbao drive to

 

[REC]

I suppose travel insurance can't help? Not sure what with, but if the better ferry is dearer,maybe they would cover the extra cost? Hope you get back safely and that your wife recovers well.

 

[r4dent]

Talk with insurance every day, they are waiting their medical team's assessment of my wife's health. Then they medivac us to UK, but the MoHo is not their problem.

 

[antiquesam]

It's roughly 500 miles to Caen where there are three ferries a day. Going via Rennes and Nantes means a good portion of the motorway is free.

 

[QFour]

Might it not be an idea to put your wife on a plane home. You can then take your time driving back knowing that she has got home safely. If you don’t fancy the drive on your own you could always ask a friend to fly down or ask on here for a willing soul.

SWMBO insisted that the holiday insurance should cover everything including getting the dog and MH home if anything happened. Red Penant cover everything.