Tournai, Belgium to Oye Plage, France

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Tournai to Oye Plage

Motorhome Journey Tournai to Oye Plage

Another lovely blue sky day at the aire de camping cars, Tournai, we breakfast and watch our fellow campers up and about. As this is our last day we sort out and tidy up inside, set our route and service Hymer, emptying tanks and filling with water. On our way to Dunkirk about 11.30 am, N7 to E42, a fast dual carriageway to the French border, then A27 past Lille, Armentiéres to Dunkirk. Here we park up at Grande Synthe shopping centre and have some lunch. Over to Auchan to shop for cheese, Jammon and some fruit and salad (no wine we have our quota of duty free).

We fill with diesel before leaving Grande Synthe, on A16 to Gravelines, D940/D119 to Oye Plage and the Bird Reserve. The Visitor Centre is busy with about 20 cars parked, lots of people out in the hides watching the terns fly out and return with food. Possibly young ones taking to the air and finding their way. It is a windy day and the wind whistles through the watching slots in the bird hide. Shelduck, grebe, mallard, coot with babies, as seen at the beginning of our trip. We cross the road and try and access what we have called ‘tern island’, a grassy island in the middle of one of the rectangular lakes absolutely covered with nesting terns, very noisy and very busy, the terns are back and forth to the coast for food. We find it surrounded by six foot chain link fence and completely inaccessible, no doubt to protect the nesting site for the birds. But we do pass hawthorn with fabulous white blossom covered with red admiral butterflies which we stop and watch.

Back at Hymer it is getting late, prawns with Czech white wine (which is remarkably good) and prawns from Auchan, later still stirfry for tea and an early night. We are both shattered!

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