I have had an eventful week visiting Kerverbel for my annual Late May wrestling match with overgrown vegetation. This year it fought back with a vengeance. I am sure that I am not the only one who has those periods in a life when nothing seems to go right, but one feels so alone when the world appears to be against one.
This visit did not start well! As we arrived at Portsmouth at our normal time we were astounded to find extraordinarily long queues at the LD lines check-in. We had come to expect that when we travelled via Dover - Calais, what with French strikes, damaged berths in Calais and bad weather, it was a regular occurrence to be held in long queues, but in Portsmouth, never. We then found out that the French fishermen with their fuel protests had blockaded other channel ports and Le Havre was one of the few open, so much traffic had been diverted there. The boat eventually sailed an hour late but as it seems we normally have to go round in circles mid channel to waste time waiting for the berthing slot in Le Havre, the boat managed to make up that hour and we docked on time.
As we travel in a van we are generally treated well by the ferry crew and put towards the front of the boat. We were lucky this time and managed to get off pretty quickly and made excellent time in getting to Kerverbel.
When we arrive at the farm in Kerverbel there are two entrances, one between two barns and the other a couple of hundred yards down the lane which is easier to access on first arrival. As we drove down past the main entrance I noticed that the yard had changed colour and the tarmac surface of the yard appeared to have faded in the sun to a pale yellow. Odd! When we got to the yard however the reason was all too apparent. It was coated in a thick layer of off white silt, about 10 mm thick on average.
Quote:
"What they pay in Europe Taxes based on a 1,600cc car
Denmark £2,966
Finland £1,753
Netherlands £1,509
Norway £1,400
Ireland £1,380
Portugal £1,272
France £1,227
UK £1,205
Luxembourg £ 596
The independent survey, which was commissioned before the fuel crisis, found that motorists in seven countries, including France and Ireland, paid more tax than British drivers."
