Optimum Solution

Waiting for the Cross-Channel Ferry – September 2009

We queue for the ferry at Calais and wonder about the buses and lorries that are driving off the ferries, including what Waberer’s Optimum Solution is carrying.

When we got to the port we found that the ferry was delayed by about an hour, we were told on account of the windy weather, though the captain on the ferry said it was congestion at the ports, which sounds a much more plausible explanation as the other P&O ferry was running on time, which meant that the two ferries were travelling back and forth in convoy.

Two ferries arriving together meant that their contents of cars, buses and lorries disgorged simultaneously, and that made for a satisfying study as they passed us while we were waiting in the queue. The buses leaving the ferries were all British, and there were quite a lot of them, from various different coach companies from varied parts of the country. Most of the coach passengers were grey-haired, though not entirely, and the coaches were all fairly well full. So just at that five o’clock on a Friday afternoon in September, maybe five hundred to a thousand Brits were leaving the country to tour a part of Europe by coach, and there weren’t even any Shearings Eurocruisers. And I’d guess that the quantity’s not unusual.

European lorry companies tend to come and go a bit (the lorries of course do, but I mean the companies). Time had it when you were never far from a Willy Betz, but these appear to be much fewer now. Norbert Dentressangle is always in evidence in northern France, and one that has been much more prevalent this year than heretofor is Waberer’s. Quite a number of Waberer’s drove off the ferries. Waberer’s have a slogan on the side of their trailers: Waberer’s Optimum Solution, which always makes me think they must be carrying jars of liquid that you use to clean your glasses.