Having bought a 330d on the Tuesday, modified it cosmetically on the Wednesday and Thursday, and had it serviced on the Friday morning, Friday afternoon’s departure for the Lakes crept up on me a bit. Still, the Woking contingent were ready to leave at 4pm, and so with Di and Jen as co-pilots, Ben and I got the estate wagons on the road.

The journey up was fairly uneventful. We made good time, covering the 290 miles in just over five hours, and I was elated to manage all this comfortably over 40MPG! We met up with Sean (CalaisBM) and Niv (both of Staples 2 Naples fame) just north of Birmingham, and our group was the last to arrive at the B&B. So we joined the others in the pub!

Just a gentle night in with a few drinks – great to finally meet Mr Croxfox at last too! Once Ben and I had given the appearance of planning a route for the next day, we all turned in.