Day 5

We had intended to go to the supermarket this morning but we went on the way back from Paris on Thursday so we decided to make an early start and try to get on an earlier ferry. What we fortunately didn't realise when we set out at 9am was that a series of events would mean that we were setting out on a 17 hour journey.

When we arrived in Calais we were told that we could not get on an earlier ferry so we had to wait until our booked time at 12:20 (local time). The ferry crossing was very calm with no-one feeling sea sick.

Back in England we were only just into our journey (on the M20, 5.5 miles from the M25) when the coach lost power and the driver had to stop on the hard shoulder. The driver could not re-start it. We called for the Highways Agency to bring a car to protect the coach while we waited for a replacement. The children were transferred to a brand new coach and we continued our journey but we had already lost about 3 hours at this point. We stopped at the next services (Thurrock) for a toilet stop and to buy a DVD. At 7pm we stopped for tea at South Mimms services. Once back on the road, the traffic was crawling around Luton, at one point, with 133 miles still to go we did covered just 1 mile in half an hour. Eventually the traffic started moving again and we were estimating arriving back at school at 11pm. Then the motorway signs told us the M6 was closed between junction 10 and 11. Just two junctions away we had no alernative but to come off the motorway and use the A roads through Wolverhampton. It was at this point that the driver told us he was only 30 minutes away from needing to take his 45 minute break (a legal requirement for safety reason), we had not alternative but to stop in a layby and let the driver rest. We then continued around Wolverhampton taking the M54 back onto the M6 at junction 12, arriving back at school at 2am, 17 hours after leaving the chateau.

We are extremely grateful to the replacement coach driver who agreed to bring us home at a moments notice (and who then had to drive back!) and to the children who all behaved brilliantly on the long journey, and during the whole trip.