TRAIN # 63 – 22:35 Paris Nord to Dunkirk (Continued)
Our arrival at Dunkirk was on time at 02:45. I still hadn’t slept. We got off the train and entered the boat terminal only to find that a large number of people were sitting on the floor. The inbound boat was late and we were told that we would be held for another hour. There was nowhere to get coffee nor was there anywhere to get a ticket for the boat. Tickets, we were told, would be issued on board.
FERRY – Dunkirk to Dover
We finally boarded the MV St Eloi (of Sealink’s Ala line) at 03:45. I tried to pay for the ticket with my Access Card but that was refused and I ended up using another traveller’s cheque instead. We had chips and coffee in the cafeteria and then went up on deck as it started to get a bit rough in the middle of the channel.
We shopped for duty free, had a last Heineken in the bar and were back on deck to see the White Cliffs of Dover and the lights of Britain getting nearer. We docked around 06:20 UK time and were through customs pretty quickly.
TRAIN # 64 – 07:40 Dover Western Docks to London Victoria
We followed the signs to the platforms of Dover Western Docks where the boat train was waiting. It was just coming light and it felt quite nice to be home again. I had only been away for 26 days but it felt like ages.
The train itself, formed of 4 BEP/CEP stock, felt familiar and, to be honest, not too shoddy in comparison with what we had experienced over the last four weeks. We left on time at 07:40 heading for London Victoria. The friendly guard came along and issued us with a ticket. As we passed through Folkestone the sun came up.
We took stock of what we had achieved. We had travelled more than 15,000 miles on more than 60 trains and visited 15 countries. We had dipped our toes in the Med, journeyed along the Rhine and crossed the Alps (more than once).
We had seen the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen, the Big Wheel in Vienna, the gondolas in Venice and the Wall in Berlin. We had tasted goulash in Budapest, eaten pizza in Rome and drunk beer in Munich. It was certainly quite an achievement especially given the limited resources we had had.
In many respects the plan had been a great success, but we had neglected to factor in the cumulative fatigue we would expose ourselves to. In a way it felt as if we had completed a massive sleep deprivation exercise with trains and cathedrals thrown in. Given the amount of sleep that we got it was inevitable that we became irritable and there had been plenty of arguments too. In some ways it was perhaps more surprising that we managed to remain friends.
The boat train journey took around two hours and eventually we approached the familiar suburbs of London and arrived back at Victoria. We said our goodbyes on the concourse and my friend went off to catch his train to Surrey.
TRAIN #65 – 11:45 London Euston to Preston
I lingered a while and then crossed London on the Victoria Line and arrived at Euston in plenty of time to catch the 11:45 Glasgow InterCity express. As I set off along the familiar West Coast Main Line, I reflected once more. The trip had awakened my latent railway enthusiasm and I had taken my first real photographs of trains for two and half years.
It had also done something else. It had made me appreciative of the railway at home. Sitting in the comfortable Mark 3 carriage heading north, I came to realise that our trains were every bit as good as their European counterparts, if not better.
Britain ran more trains at 125mph (200km/h) than any other European country except France. It was pretty cheap too; there were no expensive supplements like the ones we had come across in Spain and France.
British Rail certainly put on a great show to welcome me back. The 11:45 was bang on time arriving at Preston at 14:26. Its average speed of 74 mph made it the third fastest train of the whole trip, beaten only by the Paris to Bordeaux express and the TGV.
HOME
I changed at Preston and then again at Kirkham for the familiar little diesel train ride back to Ansdell & Fairhaven. My return ticket to London had only been from Kirkham, so I needed to spend a final 50p on a ticket home. The conductor guard asked me if I had started my journey at Kirkham, ‘not exactly’, I replied.
As well as reigniting my passion for trains, the trip had awakened my sense of wanting to travel more. I wanted to get off at more stations and I wanted to linger longer in places. Most of all I wanted to actually sleep in a bed overnight.
I also wanted to go even farther afield and, with no disrespect to my travelling partner who was for the most part really terrific company and probably felt the same way, I knew that I really wanted to travel on my own.
BACK TO Interrail Diary
Forty Years Later….
- The St Eloi (1972) stayed with Sealink until 1990. In 2026 it is still operating, now as the Sporades Star, in Greece.
- Dover Western Docks closed to rail passengers, ahead of the Channel Tunnel opening, in 1994. It is now a cruise terminal
- Some would argue that the Mark 3 is still one of the smoothest running and most comfortable carriages ever built. A few remain in service in Scotland.
- Britain‘s railway network has seen growth in passenger numbers but now lags behind many continental European countries in terms of speed and affordability of walk-up tickets.
- Subsequently, I did travel quite a fair bit on my own….
