Are you the type of person who likes to get packed and ready well in advance of your departure, or are you the type of person who gets ready an hour before you need to leave home?
I am the former, let me tell you how frustrating it is when you are trying to get the car packed the night before you travel and there are things missing because one of the party has not packed yet. There were a few tensions in the air to say the least.
Despite this everything managed to be packed into the car – like a game of Jenga. I managed to ensure that everyone in the car had sufficient room, which if you saw what needed to be packed was an absolute miracle. Not a scrap of space was spared. The only slight concern was if we are required at any point to show the breathalyser, spare bulbs etc. I may have to unload a section of the car to try and facilitate this happening.
The journey to the train at Folkestone was really easy actually, and we arrived over two hours early. On the Shuttle website they suggest that if you arrive within the 2 hour window before your timed departure then you may get an earlier shuttle. This was not my primary reason for getting there early, but it helped. My main reason was the anxiety that I was feeling about getting the dogs checked ready for travel.
As it happens, I had nothing to worry about on this leg of the journey. The Pet centre is fantastically well organised and designed. There was a dog walking area to allow your pets to empty out before hand and separate entrance and exit to assist with dog-dog separation. I do advise getting your dog emptied out at the dog walking area before you go in. I was anxious and nervous about the process and so foolishly rushed into the centre with my dogs. In the excitement of all the other dogs around Spudley wee’d, no awards won by me in dog ownership – but we are all human and sometimes these things can happen.
The staff were amazing and there is a cleaner there who was continually mopping the floor to keep every where spotlossly clean. I walked in and straight to a counter which was great, the lady who was there was really very friendly and efficient. Upon entry to the site you pull up to the barrier and are given a hangar thingy which says that you are coming with dogs. You need this to take with you to the dog reception centre, I didn’t realise and apparently I was not alone in this. The lady sat behind a tall counter and handed me the microchip reader, she then asked me to scan each dog in turn, naming the dog whose microchip she wanted read first. She checked all of the paperwork was in order and then handed me another paper hangar, to replace the one I had received initially. This had a letter and a number to say the wave that I was to board with.
So we are now sat here in the car waiting for our boarding time. We have been told there is a 1-2 hour delay. Keep your fingers crossed for me that the time passes swiftly.
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