The ferry to Spain was intended to be a huge short cut, removing over 1000 kilometres of driving for our 50 year old car as well as sanity and wear and tear. With a cabin, it cost about 1000 AUD - a lot, but again similar to what we would pay for an equivalent journey from mainland Australia to Tasmania, and the ferry would also save us about that much in petrol as well.

The ferry itself was huge - it's actually a cruise ship. I did appreciate how there wasn't a mad fight for the best seats. It might be in summer but at this time of year it seemed full of retirees. That might be different at Easter when school is out.

We beelined for somewhere nice and quiet to sit. Hot tip for travel? BYO teabags and powdered oat milk. I'm actually impressed with this brand. It works out at 1.76 p a litre but you only need a tsp in hot water for a good taste. I'm going to carry a snap lock bag in my handbag from now on... Tea and coffee out is EXPENSIVE.

We could, of course, have eaten on the ship. There's a few bars and dining areas. The most expensive was £41 for dinner... No thanks! However you could get a decent hot roast, fish and chips or veggie meal for £13 or various snacks.

However, we bought our own food thats we had bought for half the price from Tesco the day before. I'd also packed rolls, almonds, dates, crisps, peanut butter and even some Penguin biscuits, so for afters we invented 'ferry tarts' which were oat crackers with peanut butter topped with dates. They were bloody delicious.

Most of the evening I listened to a BBC podcast on the Cardiff 5, a miscarriage of justice and crime story about five black men wrongly accused of the murder of a prostitute. It was riveting and I enjoyed listening to it staring out to sea as the sun went down.

The cabin was tiny of course but simple. I bagged the bottom bunk. There was also a small ensuite. I didn't sleep too well as my nervous system isn't keen on the swaying of the ship whilst I'm trying to sleep.

In the morning Jamie had his first ferry buy - a coffee - but we had brought our own pain de chocolat and I had my hot water to make my own cheapskate tea. Jamie even found a microwave to heat up his pastry. I also found a heap of mayonnaise sachets that I liberated for the journey.

Then, Spain came into view... And we were off onto the continent...

With Love,

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