Antwerp

After farewells to those that were not going to Antwerp to load their vehicles we set off to our campsite north of Antwerp. We used the back roads as much as we could and then went towards Antwerp on the freeway. It was raining on and off and the freeway was busy with lots of large trucks.

We had heard that the traffic in Antwerp was worse than any other we had come across so far so we did a broad arc of the city and arrived at our campsite without any hassles although without a GPS it would have been very difficult. Everyone except us was due to pack their vehicle in a container the next morning (Friday) so the park was a hive of activity. Our park was only 3kms from the shipping agent's yard and there was a car cleaning facility about 7kms away where the vehicles could be pressure cleaned.

That night there was a massive thunderstorm with thunder, lightning and hailstones. All the canvas on the vehicles got drenched. The next morning the sun began to shine and fortunately was fine while the group prepared their vehicles at the shipping agent's yard.

Sam and Lorraine farewelled the Studebaker which had been their home for the duration of the trip. The buyers had arranged to pick it up from the yard.

After everyone had their vehicle loaded some returned to the caravan park for the night and others made their way with their luggage to the bus stop to catch the bus to Antwerp.

As we were the only ones not loading that day we were able to use our vehicle to shuttle some of the group back to the caravan park.

We spent Friday and Saturday morning cleaning out the van and then pressure cleaned it in the afternoon. We put the tent out to dry as it had got wet in Normandy and this was the first opportunity we had to get it dry. It was almost dry on Saturday night but as it was still fine when we went to bed and the weather was not predicted to change until Sunday evening we decided to give it another day to dry out completely. Unfortunately that night there was another thunderstorm and our tent was wet again. All weekend we were putting up and taking down the tent to try and get it dry.

Fortunately we managed to dry out the tent by Monday night. We were due at the shipping agent's yard at 9.00am on Tuesday so after saying goodbye to our Belgium/Spanish fellow camper we set off in George for the last time in Europe. All went smoothly with preparing the container and George and with the help of the staff who provided a forklift so that Jim could take off the front wheels she was loaded in the container.

We left the yard at about 1.15pm and caught the bus to Antwerp.