Rijsbergen, Netherlands to Orpington, England.

Our route from Rijsbergen to Orpington

Paul and I didn't sleep very well last night - it was too hot to sleep even though we had the fan on.  Eventually, though, at some point we did manage to fall asleep.

Paul was awake quite a bit earlier than me and read for a bit while I managed to sleep through until the alarm went off about 6:45 am.

We set off for Calais around 7:30 am with the caravan in tow.  Traffic around Antwerp was bad but it wasn't quite as bad as we thought it would be, fortunately.  It was good that we left half an hour to an hour earlier than we could have so that we had plenty of time to get to the ferry terminal in Calais.

The journey was more or less uneventful with a stop for petrol at a garage in Calais before we caught the ferry.   On the ferry we bumped into a couple of people we knew from a German naturist walking group that we joined last year.  Small world!  The rest of our journey to Dover and then to the Naturist Foundation in Orpington went smoothly.

Once we set up the caravan we walked around the Naturist Foundation's property and it was as I remembered it since my last visit a few years ago.  It is a family friendly place with a children's play area, a nice swimming pool with a roof that can be opened or closed, sauna and games courts where volleyball, mini-tennis, badminton & petanque can be played, outdoor gym, a jogging/walking track and much more.  The site also has lovely manicured lawns, a function room/dining room, reading area, bar and much more.   Please note that the photographs are from the Naturist Foundation's website to show you what the place looks like as I am not allowed to take photographs.


We got out our folding bicycles and wound our fake flowers around the handlebars.  The bicycles do look rather nice!