Trust is believing the SatNav

Friday 28^th to Saturday 29^th  December 2012

Some little time ago Diane had decided that with the two girls coming for Xmas and a bit of time afterwards, it might just be a bit too cramped on the boat and therefore to have a bit of time away and with more room she organised a week away at Bude – this was to be the week encompassing New Year’s Eve.

This being the case we  included a trip to Watford to catch up with everyone there. Bec had been with us a week and I think was naturally looking forward to see a few more friends before her journey back to New Zealand, so she decided to train it up to Manchester (and see about the phone again) and them over to Leeds – dropped her off at Stafford on Friday morning.

Banjo was off to the kennels again – which he actually does like.

And after filling the boot and half the backseat we were off as well.

It is always so good to see Maggie, Paddy, Jessica and David and this time Phil was home to be able to enjoy his company as well.

Maggie



Sam and Paddy

David

Dinner, as always was very very good – no complaints there – only that we do like things a bit on the simpler side and not so much fuss being made.

With the silly daughter

my very lovely wife

Jessica

As has been the case previously we booked in at the Premier Inn – to avoid an overcrowding of the house (as we had already had with the boat).

Our intention had been to set off on the earlier side the following  morning, but without any real time pressures and being a bit late in the previous night, the intentions did not meet the actualities.

But we were away by 10am and following the guidance of the inbuilt SatNav it was an M25 to M4 to M5 schedule.

Along the way we saw first hand the final effects of the extended periods of rain that the southern areas of England have gone through – at times we were literally driving the road between lakes of water on each side; the south coast seemed to have receded to the M4.

There is a lovely lady behind the SatNav in the car who guided us through all of the roadworks along the way; gave plenty of notice about which lane to be in and where to turn – only problem is that when she said we had reached our destination, we had in fact not reached it - or at least we hoped it wasn’t – it was a retirement village.

Diane pulled out the backup SatNav – her phone – it quickly identified where we should have been and calculated how to get there.

We followed the instructions given – left here, right there – go along the rough track – what appeared to be a short narrow rough lane – as we progressed the vegetation was closing in on both sides; we couldn’t turn around and reversing was an option as a last resort-  a kind lady (not the SatNav one) was able to tell us a bit about the road ahead – it would get worse – she helped move some of the brambles away from the car and Sam even got out to do the same.

We made it through without scratching the car; found the road – a proper made road – and then the place we had been looking for – I am sure the David Attenborough travelled in more comfortable surrounds that what we had been through; but trust in our gadgets did we place and results did arrive from that faith - after a relaxing drink the nerves finally settled down.