Crossing the Channel

Monday 5th September 1983

Left home at about 10:00am with a sad farewell from friends and family at 166 Woodland Gardens, Isleworth, Middlesex, West London. The second-hand Honda 90’s performed marvellously and we roared along at a good 30-40 miles per hour without any traffic problems. The weather was warm and sunny and George (Lockyer), my companion on the trip, was stung by a wasp! I had a scare when my motorbike packed up just after we had left a petrol filling station, but this was due to me neglecting to turn the petrol feeder tap back on. We got to Dover at about 14:00 hrs. and had a feed before getting on the ferry which departed for Belgium at 15:30 hrs. The English Channel crossing was calm and uneventful, punctuated with a long queue for the cafeteria to get only a can of Pepsi Cola.

In Ostende it was getting dark so we were forced to use our “formidable” headlights (joke)! My bike stalled at the Passport Control Booth and refused to start for a few minutes. The Youth Hostel was just around the corner and was a veritable palace. We were efficiently booked into a luxurious bedroom and now we relax in the hostel bar over a coffee and some army ration hard tack biscuits (George and I had both been in the Territorial Army and had been issued with ration packs which were superfluous to requirements at the time). George, ill-equipped as usual, has bought a dodgy pen and is hovering over me waiting to use mine. George and I both got our hair cropped this morning and look like a couple of lunatics! It is difficult not to keep thinking of home and feeling sad. Sent postcard to mum and dad.

Later note made on 26th September 1983 The ferry crossing was a quiet affair as neither of us was willing to talk much for fear of crying. We both put on a bold front, talking to convince ourselves that we were doing the right thing. The response to our Royal Oak (Public House in Isleworth, West London) Farewell Do had moved us and made us realise how we took our friends for granted.