And we're off! Or not.

Got to Portsmouth with only a minor shower and a brief detour via being slightly lost in Southsea. Between 2 signs saying seafront and Lynn chirping in my ear, I second guessed myself and took the wrong turn off. But we got there, stupidly early despite lynn's major packing panic which saw a complete repack take place in an NCP. We met up in the boarding queue with the Lithuanian brothers and friends, who we already knew were on our ferry. We compared packing notes for a whe, but I got distracted by the seriously cool car convention going on. I mean it: a car so vintage you could see where the horse used to go to a lovely yellow and black Rolls with the wide curvy mudguards/ running boards to about 7 other heavy vintages (yes, including Austins). Having told the oldest one's driver how seriously cool his wheels were, I met a couple of overly energetic gents on bicycles - one from iCape Town, who chatted about bikes (he has a BMW bike at home) hayfever and hyenas, until it was time to board (finally). On board, I had learned from Croatia and thus had cash. In 2 currencies. The ferry was hands down the best thought-through I've been on, mit cinemas, decent live acts in the cheaper-than-London cocktail bar and supeisiny veggie-friendly food. I'm always surprised by that with anything French- they're not generally good with lactose-intolerant veggie. As usual, though, my stash of brown sugar was needed. Europe just can't seem to get the hang of that, for some unknown reason. Next stop? Bordeaux