And we’re off!

Setting off from Bath Spa station

First stop, Calais.

We left the UK on a drizzly Monday at the start of February 2025, thinking ‘thank God we are off to sunshine and beaches’ before reminding ourselves it will be nearly a year before Southeast Asia… hope we’re not making a mistake.

Our first transport took us from Bath Spa station - a 10 minute drive from where our parents live and where we did our final bag packing and life-stuff dumping (they weren’t happy about the amount of teapots and shoes I left them with).

On the train we caught up with voice notes and goodbye messages from friends and breathed a sigh of relief. A quick change in London from Paddington to St Pancras International and we were on a train to Dover, where we would jump on a ferry to Calais.

Thinking we’d save money on transport, we traipsed from Dover station to the ferry port, wondering how we were going to manage carrying these backpacks around the world. At least the sun had made an appearance by this point.

On the ferry finally - via a shuttle bus and a long wait - and then we arrived in Calais, sharing a taxi with another volunteer and an English customs officer into the town centre.

Now for some sleep before a day in the warehouse tomorrow.

Martha