We loaded the car up and pointed ourselves Hullwards yesterday morning, kitted out with the usual travel accoutrements, plus a couple of trays of frozen home-made cannelloni, one for us and one for Annie and Chris to have the first night in their self-catering digs in Herefordshire. Ten miles from home: ping! Loss of pressure in offside rear tyre. I’d had my suspicions when I pumped the tyres up in preparation for the journey, but as it held pressure for a couple of days, I thought we were OK. Wrong. We pumped it up again in a lay-by, then limped into Sevenoaks to a well known rubber supplier, which turned out to be fully booked for the day. Feeling thoroughly miserable, we drove gingerly down to Tonbridge, resolving, should that branch of said supplier not be able to sort us out, we’d abandon the trip (and resign ourselves to several days of eating cannelloni). Fortunately, they had both stock and capacity, and little over half an hour later (during which we’d sat on a wall eating our sandwiches) we were sure-footed and back on the road, albeit with an alarmingly lighter wallet. The approach to the Dartford tunnel was as awful as usual, and a glance at the satnav suggested that the Blackwall tunnel route was every bit as bad. About an hour after leaving Tonbridge we were in Essex and out of second gear.
Traffic on the rest of the journey was pretty busy, but we got to Annie’s in close to the predicted four and a half hours - not having broken the journey for lunch, but stopping only twice to change seats. It seems that the route via Lincoln and the magnificent Humber Bridge is quicker and shorter than the all-motorway routing - anyway, it spared us quite a lot of the tedious A1.
It’s the longest journey we’ve done in years, and it served to remind us how little we miss the long drive to Lagrasse, much though we loved our time in the Corbières. We neither of us enjoy driving as we used to, and are conscious of how advancing years affect both stamina and reaction times. But neither do we fancy the idea of spending hours on public transport now that so many people have lowered their guard against infection.
We found Annie and Chris on good form, and spent an enjoyable and convivial evening together. We shall wave them off on their holiday later this morning, and mind the house for them for a week. We also get the chance to meet some old friends and maybe find some new places to visit.
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