2019-07-14 Calais to Oude Hoeven Camperplaats, NL

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Calais to Helenaveen

We sleep in, which is good after such a long drive yesterday. Have breakfast and call at the Auchan supermarket for cheese, cooked meat and wine before we leave Calais. As it is Bastille day, the French have a day of celebrations so most shops and many supermarkets are closed.

Auchan is not our preferred supermarket, like Waitrose or Sainsbury, it is more expensive than most but it is open so we call. We take the A16 out of Calais towards Dunkirk, into Belgium (the road becoming the N8). On towards Ghent and the E40, a motorway standard road, no bends and almost totally flat! We make good time and stop at a truck stop for lunch near Oudenberg on the E40. South of Ghent we take the R4 and E17 towards Antwerp. We make good time getting to Antwerp mid afternoon. The ring road around Antwerp is like a racetrack (the M60 around Manchester), five lanes of fast-moving traffic, with everyone knowing where they are going!

From Antwerp the E34 towards Turnhout and into the Netherlands (the road becoming the A67). From here towards Eindhoven and the campsite at Helenaveen. Oude Hoeven Camperplaats, is on Soemeersingel which is the road that runs alongside the canal. The campsite itself is small, taking only 8 campers (we take the last vacant spot), but really it is an extension of the householders very large garden. What a spot. We are arranged in a square around a large fishpond (with large koi carp) and waterfall with flowering shrubs and bushes. The ground is level with good quality grass, the whole being kept in very nice condition by the owner (who clearly loves his land and garden). He tells us they have a motor home so understand what people want when travelling, we are always impressed by the Dutch people’s ability to speak other languages. I suppose that when there are not many of you in a country and you are surrounded by countries that speak other languages you don’t have a lot of choice.

We settle in, open wine and sit in the sunshine with most of the others. Just what we need as an antidote to another long day travelling 211 miles.