the journey to Uttoxeter and Rochdale.

I know this is a late post as this all happened Tuesday but better late than never, and this was truly an experience and a half.

With a 6.30 in the morning start to day I knew it was going to a long day. After a cup of tea and some breakfast we set off to pick up the hired van from Gulliver’s. We were told by the company that the we hired was brand new and had only 44 miles in its life time from leaving the factory, well after this trip we would have really but it to the test.

We set off from Bristol about 8.00, where I only thought there would be three of us head up north there turned out to be four. The added extra who tagged along sat and slept on my lap most of the way there and most of the way back too and now I think I have a friend for life. A ten week old pup called Gem was brought with us and she was as good as gold the whole trip, it certainly helped pass the time.

We got to Rochdale about 11.00 so we were making good time so far. This is where we picked up the pillar drill and fly press which needed a forklift truck to get on to the van. Once they were safely on the van we pressed on further north to Rochdale, which took much longer than we had anticipated due to making a few minor wrong turnings but that wasn’t the hard part. The hardest part of the journey to Rochdale was finding the house we needed to go to. We reached the area called the summit and started asking locals were this place was which no one seemed to know. When we eventually found this place right at the top of a huge hill along some very thin winding road to be able to pick up the portable forge.

With all the equipment picked up it was time to head home, we stopped off to have some lunch then began the long trip back south. Unlucky for us the M6 was packed to a stand still for a couple of hours, and so getting home took us a lot long than it should have. We got back to Bristol about 10.00 in the evening and were all very tired after a 14 hour day of travelling. We had to fill the van back up with fuel which I paid for, costing me £80, we only used ¾ of the tank which I think is amazing for a trip like that. After getting home one thing I couldn't wait to see was my bed, I really needed to sleep.