Advertisement
Published: June 16th 2009
Thursday June 4th
Today is car pickup day!!and we become truly free agents to go where we want,when we want and at our pace!!Although to be fair the travel up until now has all fallen into place and despite the trollying of suitcases with backpacks on it hasn’t been that difficult.We are pleased that we have done this trip now not just for the sake that we free and financially able to do it but also we had always realised that as we aged we would probably be less inclined to take an adventure of what we had achieved so far and was still ahead of us.
We had mulled over the choices of going to Heathrow without luggage on the tube to pick up the car and then drive it back to Barking via what looks like a maze of roads(at least on the atlas it looks like a maze)and then load the car or just trolly and backpack our stuff on hopefully an empty tube train from Barking change at one of several possible stations to the Piccadilly line and pick the car up and head straight for Holyhead from where we catch the ferry to Ireland tomorrow morning.
The trains had not been busy after 9.30am we had noticed so we went for the first option and without too much difficulty,remembering that we now had food supplies left over from our self catering at Barking that we would need on the journey, to add to our luggage as well we made it to the station.
The train wasn’t busy and we secured two seats at the front of the carriage so that we could sit our suitcases out of the way of people that come and go on the train.We would stick with the train until Hammersmith changing to the Piccadilly line across the platform.All very simple......except that the Piccadilly line train we got on ,we found out,was only going to Northfield,a station well short of Heathrow!!Still we were on the right line,we just had to get off at the train’s terminus and wait for a Heathrow train which didn’t take long to arrive.
However the journey had taken quite a bit longer than we expected and it was 11.30 before we made the airport to ring the off airport site garage that acts as the Renault Eurodrive agent.The pick up was quick and the documentation to sign minimal as everything had been in the transaction in NZ when we paid for the car.
So now we were the proud “owners” for the next 5 plus months of a brand new silver grey Renault Clio III estate with diesel engine with 23km on the clock!!We gave her(or him,which I am sure it will become if it gives us any trouble)the name Renee(can be boy or girl) all sounding very French.Here we were driving a French car,something we would never do after the Rainbow Warrior bombing and Mururoa!!! Time does heal everything and you can’t let old predjuices rule when there is more adventure beckoning.
Gretchen had the honour of the first drive as she would have been a terrible passenger with me at the wheel of a left hand drive ,manual change vehicle!!!and in a strange roading network to boot.
The agent told us tips of exiting from the area and told us of one incident that nearly brought about an accident report before the driver had gone even 200 metres!!The guy had climbed in the car and been given instruction s to turn right at the lights which he did......only onto the right hand side of the road!!!!forgetting that one drives on the left hand side here.With a solid median strip down the centre a police car passing on the other and correct side of the road had to go into action to avoid a collision and the guy driving was lucky that the side he had turned into was quiet at the time.
We listened attentively as we certainly didn’t want anything like that to happen to us and although we have driven left hand drive cars before they have always been in the States where of course you drive on the right hand side of the road.
With Stan’s map on my knee in the passengers seat and Gretchen at the wheel we successfully got ourselves onto the M25 and we were on our way to Holyhead.It had all been a breeze!!!
We drove for about an hour to get used to the car and then pulled off at a service area for lunch and to take stock of the rest of the route we had ahead of us.The main challenge was a couple of road changes that we had to make to circle around Birmingham and then it was all pretty straight forward to North Wales.
We started off again,this time taking in more the English countryside and as Gretchens confidence grew so did the speed and soon we were overtaking other cars!!!! Now this may sound all a bit silly when we have both been driving cars for years but remember this was a left hand drive car on the left side of the road and on strange highways numbered in a manner we had not encountered before.
We do not intend to take the M motorways when we return from Ireland but rather the lesser A type country roads so we get to take in the sights at a more leisurely pace.But today we had a goal and that was Holyhead and the highway route would be the most direct.
We decided to take another stop to see if we could find a Tescos and purchase the microwave we had been thinking about so we could cook for ourselves most evenings and also be useful at breakfast time too.
The town we chose was Banbury,presumably this is the one that the poem is all about...”ride a cock horse to Banbury Cross,to see a fine lady upon a fine horse”................at least thats how I remember it goes.
As we pulled off the motorway we noticed the sign with directions to the town centre and so followed them getting a car park next to a canal that ran behind the shopping mall.All very English!!There was even a canal boat negotiating the lock as we left the car.
There wasn’t a Tescos but there was an Argos store in one of the side streets in this quaint town that was similar to Chelmsford in appearance.We had been into an Argos store in London just to see what they were all about as they don’t have any stock actually on display.Rather you find what you want from a catalogue,check the stock level and then order it from a counter where you also pay for it.Five minutes later or less in the case of our microwave purchase it is delivered from out the back where we assume there is a warehouse full of stock.Prices are lower than you would usually find in a normal shop and we paid GBP27 for the microwave which had all the functions we would need.
So with that and acouple of other purchases made it was back to the highway and the route to Holyhead.
The speed of the traffic took a bit of getting used to although the trucks seemed to obey their speed limit,at least of the section of road we were travelling.It was only when we got to the ring road around Birmingham and we opted for the toll free road,in recognition that this is the Benvie Budget Adventure,that the traffic slowed down.
Now we realised why it would have been wiser to pay the toll and take the other road as the traffic was crawling,although not anything like the Auckland motorway at peak time,and we had become used to the free flow of the traffic in the past couple of hours.
With Birmingham behind us a sign came up saying the highway system was about to end and then we started to meet the roundabouts!!!!Man,don’t the English love their roundabouts!!We should have realised this as the new roundabout(if you can really call it that) at Brookfield at home was designed by some woman expert from here.We now appreciate why she thought it would be good to have sets of traffic lights in the roundabout as well. !!
The roundabouts sometimes came with lights and sometimes not but if nothing else they came at very frequent intervals as we pressed on towards North Wales.
We knew without the map that we had reached Wales!!All the road signs were now in two languages!!One we had no idea what it said and luckily the other in English.
God help visitors to NZ if the Maori ever get to put road signs in our country in two languages!!!
North Wales is stunning country!!The scenery as we drove on was just beautiful aided we guess a little by the filtering late afternoon sun.The houses were different in appearance to those of the England countryside we had just driven through and as the road climbed the area called Snowdonia the construction became more and more of the slate or stone that was freely available in the area.
The little villages were an absolute delight to pass through and we would have loved to stop an explore them but we wanted to make Holyhead before dark so we will just have to make a day trip back here when we are in Settle from mid June.
The road continued to rise gradually although not steep like we were used to in New Zealand and we came across a lake at the foot of some rather steep hills.The scene reminded us of a mini version of the area around Lake Hawea.
The it was down the other side and onto the Isle of Anglesey and Holyhead,a rather grey boring place compared to what we had been through.We guess the appearance of a couple of towering industrial type chimneys at a visible nearby power station didn’t help and nor did the dusk that starting to approach by the time we arrived.
The pub down the road from the Travelodge,our accommodation for the night,stopped serving food at 8.30pm,nearly an hour before,so it was either McD’s or the local chippie.
We chose the local chippie for cod and chips.I should have opted for the small size chips as the large size I had ordered beat me,an unusual occurrence!!!
We had travelled further north and west today and the sun was setting later but after the long day we were both ready for bed when we got back to the Travelodge and it didn’t take long for sleep to overcome us.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0354s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Christine Barns
non-member comment
O My God
Well hello, to the travellers, I was getting a bit worried and lonely without the blogs. You went to an "Argos" holy cow.... Wonder what it stood for over there - certainly not what you and I know it to be Grahame. Great to hear you both alive and kicking and look forward to more entries. cheers Christine