There‘ll be blue birds over

The White Cliffs of Dover.
This view always makes me emotional, more when leaving England.
We set off at 7am, in pouring rain, the kids slept in the back, Mr S driving and me navigating. Google maps suggested 1406 km, 16 hours traveling, including ferry. By the time we got south of Manchester, the weather was fair, nice light in the sky too. Isn’t that just typical! There was a lot of traffic, but no holdups, we had our first break at the services on the M6 toll road. I was planning to use M25 anti clockwise after the M40, looking clear, protesters were superglued to Dartford crossing. Suddenly, Mr Google informed us that there were 4 accidents on anti-clockwise M25 and would add an hour to the journey to Dover. So, we went the other way and got round without stoppages. We were there at the Port ready for the 14.00 sailing, which was delayed. The sea was rough.
We went straight to the restaurant for a hot meal, perhaps a last fish and chips. There is no longer a restaurant, just snacks, Mr S was devastated! We enjoyed a little time on deck, with blue sky, the ship’s stabilizer worked very well, and it felt calm, even though huge waves were crashing over the hull and the trucks parked on the front.
It was a long drive mainly through Belgium, my son drove most of this. I navigated and Copiloten, many games of I Spy and word games as day turned to night.
We were back home by 3am, so glad to be safely back in my own bed again. What a journey, what a trip, so happy we could all go and give mum a proper funeral and send off.