Road trip! UK TO CORFU! - Day one

The villa purchase completed just three days before the Brexit deadline! Then, it was official! We had bought our dream house on the beautiful island of Corfu!!!Now, we just had to get there, we were moving with our gorgeous little dog Heidi and old cat, Treacle, after weighing the options we decided to drive!

In September, a lengthy 9 months after completing on the Villa, we were eventually moving to Corfu and setting off on our long drive to Greece!

The first leg of the journey!

" With the car packed to the gunnels and a rather foul aroma emanating from Joes' footy boots mixed with mums cheese & pickle sarnies we were off! ”

We set off early doors, from the in laws house, on the 6th of September 2021 to our #newhome on the beautiful island of Corfu. Our first stage, of the rather mammoth journey, was getting to Dover. We drove down from Newcastle upon-Tyne taking two stops for the pup to have some toilet breaks and to stretch her legs. We also took Treacle, our 9 year old Persian cat, on his first 'walk' round Watford services, it was all rather stressful for everyone involved but despite first impressions he came to rather like his snazzy red harness by the end of the trip!

Not too impressed!

The first stress of the journey came when (because of stopping for a #lastever Mcdonalds) we were running late for the ferry to Calais! Somehow we got our timings out and ended up flying down the M20 with 10 minutes to spare before the 'check in window' closed!

Alas, we had nothing to fear in the end as when we reached the port of Dover. We drove straight in, quick 2 mins at the check in/ security barrier then we were waiting in the car holding bay. We had 30 minutes to relax before driving onto the ferry.

We made it to Dover!

Doggy playtime

At Dover, it was all rather civilised, most likely due to Covid travel being such a pain and being outside of the school holidays. There were few cars/lorries and the welcome area was deserted!

This really helped as we got the doggy play area all to ourselves - which Heidi loved and it gave Joe and I the chance to calm the hell down after the stressful near miss of the check in.

“Don't know who was more stressed them or us! ”

We drove onto the ferry at Dover and then had to head up to the passenger area on the upper decks, leaving the dog and cat in the car! All very stressful although don't think they were really too bothered. Me on the other hand was worried sick! It was hot and smelly in the hull of the ferry. We cracked all of the windows opened and guiltily bribed the pets with cat dreamy treats and mini jumbones.

Up on deck we took in the sights!

The ferry journey to Calais was quick we relaxed with the lorry drivers although didn't get as comfy as some!

Before we knew it we were docking at Calais. We disembarked the ferry, animals unscathed and drove onto French soil. We chose a cheap and cheerful Ibis hotel, right by the port. It was small but clean and pet friendly. We got there just as it was getting dark. We were exhausted but knew we'd done the easy bit and still had a lot of miles ahead!