Hullo United Kingdom!
Later today a car will leave South London and head down the famous A303 towards England’s most southerly point, Land’s End. Tomorrow, it will leave at the crack of dawn and drive for over 10 hours until it reaches Edinburgh. The following morning it will strike out, most likely in the pouring rain, for Scotland’s most northerly point, John o’ Groats, and then as far back south again as the light will allow. On Sunday morning it will fire up and begin the long journey home to London where it expects to glide into its parking space back in South London in the early evening following a round trip of around 1800 miles driving the length of the United Kingdom.
Apparently this colour is "tango"
The car in question is a fine example of motoring engineering – a 2009 Ford Mondeo 1.8 Manual Diesel – supplied by the good people at Kendalls Hire Cars for a very reasonable price. Yes its boring, yes its dull but it was cheap, big and far more likely to get us there than a 15-year old Black Cab.
In this car will be myself and three friends – Ali, Dan and Ed – to help share the driving and keep each other sane. And some tents, CDs, delicious road snacks and even an emergency Sat Nav. Given that we’ve undertaken to conduct this rather unusual trip on the August Bank Holiday weekend, I fully expect to encounter all manner of road works, accidents, unexplainable traffic jams, overturned caravans, broken down minibuses, and escaped horses. We’ve also built a spare day into the itinerary (handily, Bank Holiday Monday) which we will undoubtedly need.
We shall be posting regular updates throughout the weekend right here on this blog and the 52 New Things twitter account. We’re taking various cameras and video cameras so you might even get some moving images as well. We plan to hit the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Friday night so expect some form of extra New Thing there as well.
And should any readers wish to suggest things to do along the way, places to see or people to meet, leave a comment below and we’ll do our best to give it a go.
A full write-up will appear on Tuesday…..if we make it.
You’ll have to stop at Loch Ness and get a picture with the monster (if easier, there must be a couple of sculptured ones).
If the motorway miles start to get a bit much, maybe a quick diversion to conquer “the most dangerous road in Britain”? The Cat and Fiddle Pass (also home to the second-highest pub in England) is an 11 mile A-road between Macclesfield and Buxton. A great road for motorbikes, hence the high accidents-per-mile figure attached to it when the annual statistics are published. Although I’m not sure a David-Dickinson-coloured Mondeo is the perfect steed for such an enjoyable road, it would be a lot safer than a bike.
Have a good trip!