Back from the escapade to Morocco and after having booked
for truck-2 a space in RoRo from Antwerp to Halifax by Seabridge, I
was to put it at quay at the latest on Monday, April 13. I
programmed my cities GPS with the address indicated for a
trip that it announced for around 1199 km highway I thus left on
Saturday, April 11 at the forefront of day to arrive in the
afternoon of Sunday at the harbor. For my peace of mind and by laze
I
followed it servilely noting that the road proposed was not that
which I would have taken. For example it made me take east-by-pass
of Lyon whereas I would have taken Lyon Center, but with final it
avoided me most of the jam which I found at the tollgate of
Villefranche and so on. It was thus the best choice in time failing
to be it in distance covered.
On Saturday evening I
bivouacked on a rest area for trucks close to Toul. In the small
hour a string of customs and police cars blocked me as well as
the close car arrived in the night. The police and customs gente
made up with more than 50% of woman greeted me and told me that it
intervened for the close car occupied by a coloured man, I left the
spot without displeasure. In the afternoon of Saturday I wiped a
spring drizzle and on Sunday morning a dense fog while crossing
Luxembourg. I lunched on a service area of the ring of
Brussels with a Wifi hotspot. With the approach of the North Sea
the wind broad drove out the clouds and a hot sun heated the
atmosphere. I arrived at the end of my trip around 14:30 opposite
the PSA building. I establish my bivouac there on a space of parking
in front of a truck. I sent my daily position report by ham radio then
I prepared my truck, cleaning of the stains of the
road and arrangement nothing to leave in the cabin. Mow, I finished
the day while reading on my Kindle “The last day of a condemned” by Victor Hugo.
According to the excellent given
documents by
Seabridge, it was necessary to be presented as of
08:00 at the office of PSA-building but I noted that as of 06:00 trucks entered and left the
enclosure. With the file under my arm
I entered the offices on foot around 6:30 where a pleasant French
speaking young woman dealt with my file; ten minutes later I arose
with the requested document to go to the 869 quay where an electric
car Zoe expected me! The finished inspection procedure with duration
hardly half an hour from beginning to end. A taxi was ordered which
arrived around 7:30 to deposit me at the Antwerpen-Berchem station
around 8:00. I arrived around 9:30 at Brussels-Midi largely in
advance to take the TGV to Nice at 12:06 with a stop at Les
Arc-Draguignan where my brother expected me at 19:23.
I should mention the professionalism of Seabridge as well as PSA which
dealt with the guarding and the transporting of my vehicle that I
should find in Halifax on a still unspecified date, starting from
April 29th. On Sunday, April 26 I will take again a TGV but to go to
the Charles-of-Gaulle airport where on Monday, 27th I will
embark on British Airways flights for Halifax in two stops via
London and Toronto. Starting from the beginning of May 2015 I will
take again my weekly log books by beginning with Canada then the USA
for returning where I left the truck-1 in the break-in Lopez,
Baja-California.
The challenge of this second part of the
trip round the world is of very another nature. I am older with a weakened
health. Moreover my cardiologists formally disadvised to me a fortiori taking the road
again via Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru and the Andes Cordillera. In the life it is
necessary to be reasonably reasonable. I should quote, for the
nième+1 time, Clint Eastwood: “The wise man knows his limits”. But
is it necessary to be wise? The world tour is not an end in itself,
on the other hand the discovery of new landscapes, new
civilizations, new human contacts there is one of the finalities of
the life, intellectual enrichment, transmission of knowledge and respect of the other.
The take into account of the other is a lesson of humility.
“To be, it is to strive to be open to all.” by Philippe Bilger.