Berck to Rue/Le Crotoy – A Time for Distance

The red line is what I’ve done in the last few days and the blue is to do over the next 3 days before Thosdey neet. It’s hot, I’m getting tired and I want to get a train to Rouen from Dieppe and rest for a day with our friends the Carreres, before starting back.

Dieppe is significant in my life.

In 1974 I was living in London and sold dozens of LPs to get the money to buy a boat train ticket from Victoria to Newhaven to Dieppe to Rouen to see my girl who was living there. I married her not long after.

We have crossed the channel to and from there many times,

In 2002 me and my friend Nigel Stansfield drove down to Newhaven, and picked up my French mates Francis Carrere and Francis Sennenck who had come over from Dieppe. We watched the Blades beat Brighton 4-2 and had a right good boys weekend.

In 2010 I was stuck in Bratislava on business when the ash cloud came down. I had three days to get back home to see the Blades in a Sheffield derby at Hillsborough. I got lifts from colleagues and mates across Europe to Dieppe, the only crossing that wasn’t fully booked, and made it for the game.

The sun was out again and it was hot outside, as I stoked up on two Maccy D breakfasts.

So today was more about miles than smiles, as I was reverting to road walking along a route with very few views beyond woodland on either side of the road. This area is like the Everglades with water everywhere. But you can’t see much of it from the road.

Although occasionally it lets some in!

I made some friends on the way. Hello boys and girls!

I got my head down and my walking poles striding away. But the day got hotter, sweatier and more tiring. I was only aiming for 16 miles but it took eight hours. I needed to be at this campsite before 18 hundred pm and, having picked up dinner from a shop en route (that had run out of bread) I only just made it.

The lass on reception was lovely and showed me to my pitch. She popped down later to bring me an artisanal French loaf as the site shop had closed, they hadn’t sold the loaf and she gave it me. What nice people there are here.

I had the loaf with ham and cornichons, with baby tomatoes on the side. I was right happy. and I got a radio feed for the Blades Forest second leg.

We lost on pens. Then the most enormous thunderstorm struck, which lasted nearly all night. Reyt apocalyptic. Forest will fail in the final.

But I still got some sleep. So should you.

Night night.