The Crossing

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” –Henry David Thoreau

I’m crossing the Straight of Dover today.  Or the Straight of Calais.  Depends on one’s perspective, right?  I’m wondering why, of all companions I could have had, I chose Annika.  After all, there aren’t hummingbirds in Europe.  Who knows–maybe she just wanted to come along for the ride.

We’re on a ferry for the trip.  That’s rich–a faery on a ferry!  Maybe she is going to “faery/ferry” me around.  Good one, Annika.

I would be outside for the short trip over (about 33km/20mi), but it is COLD out there!  The spray from the water makes it feel even colder.  So I’m huddled inside, trying to learn a thing or two.

Americans (or USAians) are unfortunately well-known for their shortcomings in the geography and history departments.  I’ve worked hard on this myself, reading National Geographic every month and NOT just looking at pictures, but I’m still hard-put to keep cities, facts, even countries, in some sort of logical relationship in my cluttered brain.

So for my own edification, here are a few facts I learned today (thank you Wikipedia).

• Dover and Calias bookend the shortest crossing between England and France
• The Straight is one of the busiest seaways in the world (over 400 commercial vessels daily)
• the HM Coastguard has a great symbol, with the C and the G font made of sea rope
•  The straight is believed to have been created through erosion
• The predominant geology is chalk!  (excellent tunnelling medium for the Chunnel)
• Aside from boats, crossings of the straight have also been attempted by pedalo (pedal boats!), bathtub (what?) and of course, swimming
• A naval battle was fought here during WWI on 21 April 1917

I’ll be landing in Calais shortly and am planning to make my way to  Chateau Tilques for the night.  This will be my home base while I explore the surrounding area, including Saint-Omer and the walled town of Boulogne.

We’re docking now….more tomorrow!