After 30 minutes my phone pings. It’s the email alert telling us to log in as our Covid antigen test results are ready. I have been playing it cool with Kimberley, but genuinely, I am concerned. There is no specific reason for my concern, but it is there anyway.
They are both negative! So, no Covid then, and we’re all good to go. Now, a large part of me almost didn’t go for the test as, on Saturday, the French government decided that if you could prove that you are double vaccinated then you do not need a negative test result. So, why put the trip in doubt by going for a test then? It doesn’t make sense. However, the universe has made us pay for a test that couldn’t be cancelled, so there must be a reason.
Test results safely downloaded, we leave Gatwick to go to the Eurotunnel. The easiest Covid test centre to get to from where we’ve been staying for the last few days is Gatwick, so that is where we booked. Now most people don’t drive to Portugal because it is a long drive. If they do drive, they tend to get a ferry to Bilbao to cut out the trip through France. I unfortunately can’t use ferries as I get seasick in the bath, so the tunnel it is, then a blast through France and Spain and into northern Portugal.
To celebrate, and to kill a few hours as it’s now 17:00 and we’re not booked onto the Eurotunnel until 00:20, we head off to eat our first meal out in a restaurant since lockdown began. We find ourselves at Ashford designer outlet centre which is massive and a shoppers’ paradise. After a pizza, we walk around to get our step count up for the day and feel on top of the world!
The test results are good for 48 hours, so we have to be in Portugal – 1,267 miles away – by 16:45 Portuguese time on Wednesday 21st July. It shouldn’t be a problem, and in fact it wasn’t, but only because we had those ‘unnecessary’ antigen tests. Let me explain.
Firstly, at Eurotunnel, once we had got through the UK checks – a full three hours early – we went to the French check-in point to be told that their computer system was down. In a truly Gallic way, the lovely Claudette positively demanded that we had to have covid test results as she wouldn’t accept the proof of double vaccination on our NHS app. Well how lucky was that? There is always a reason to do something so just do it. You don’t always need to know why.
We showed our once superfluous antigen test results and she waved us off in the direction of the car lane telling us we can get the earlier train which leaves at 22:20. Fantastico! By some happy coincidence I find myself going towards a height restriction of 1 metre 85 cm in my 2 metre 10 cm campervan. Literally six inches – after all, as a true Brit of a certain age, I don’t get metric – but literally six inches from the overhead barrier, I stop – realising that I am about to lose the top of the campervan!!! Feeling lucky again, I back up and the rest of the Eurotunnel trip goes smoothly.
We drive for an hour the other side then pull over to sleep exhausted but happy. Feeling truly blessed. Living the dream in our campervan TUT. We were in France, and nothing was going to stop us. We are on our way to Portugal.