there are currently no ferries taking foot passengers from dover to calais. pilgrims plan ahead! you will need to go in a car or lorry or maybe a bicycle but you cannot go on foot. Unfortunately, after getting your stamp at dover ypu will need to travel back to st pancras and take the Eurostar from st pancras to lille and then a train lille to calais. this is the best/only option. not a cheap exercise. you can then get stamp at calais church to start stage 3. Ahhhhh!!!!!!
Hello
@WayneG
Yes, it is a real nuisance and a huge disappointment after the restoration of ferry for foot passengers only a few weeks ago after more than a year off.
You can see a mention of it in recent
CPR newsletter [which I edit]. But the situation of course is subject to change.
No other carriers at Dover take foot passengers. Irish Ferries told me a while back they are not taking foot passengers 'yet'. Whatever that means.
DFDS (and P&O last year) will bring you with a bike and a surprising number of people have used this option starting last summer, disposing of the bike in Calais. We hope people might donate it to a refugee charity. People have found it not too difficult to pick up a cheap bike in Dover - for example through FB. But it is a bit hit and miss I suppose.
You can travel from Newhaven to Dieppe as a foot passenger but it is inconvenient at each end.
You cannot hitch through the tunnel and the bus situation is not easy.
We would all be VERY interested to hear from people who have had success with
blablacar.com - it is difficult because you cannot in the nature of it book ahead much.
Even if P&O get going again, which does not seem imminent, there is no
guarantee they will provide for foot passengers again, though we can hope. I think the reason that the operators are not keen on foot passengers is that it requires provision of a bus and staff to carry (rather few) foot passengers through the French and English customs and immigration which are all at Dover and then on to the ferry. On a bike you can do it yourself. On the other hand, while P&O stopped taking foot passengers during the pandemic times, they DID restore the service when it became practicable again.
I think the phrase is - we have hope but not optimism.
it’s a small setback in the scheme of things. one step at a time.
I do like your attitude!
Bon chemin and Buon Cammino. Let us know how you get on.
Tim