Hull to Brighton.... by road??!!

I don't know where the time is going! Everyday seems to fly by yet I'm not sure what we've done! We have done one major thing and that is to bring the cars down from Hull. It took two days and reinforced my view that travel by water is by far the preferred option. We had two cars to bring back, one would have been so much simpler. Just to make things that bit harder the cars are not modern. In fact Martyns car is 48 years old - not a youngster by any stretch of the imagination. I thought I had it bad, a ten year old Citroen Saxo (1.1) - hardly the lap of luxury and no power steering. I couldn't really complain though, at least I had a radio, heating and working windscreen wipers. Things that would be become essential during the trip!

We left the boat at 8am to catch the bus to the station, another form of transport not to be recommended. The bus driver seemed to be on a mission to race everything in sight and seemed to take pleasure in watching people running for the bus then setting off without them... Some sport! After a 35 minute bus journey covering approx 3 miles we reached the station, boy was I glad to get off! I think my next job should be within walking distance... I had pre booked the tickets and needed to collect then at the station. This had been playing on my mind. I like to have everything in order when planning a trip and was concerned about the amount of time it would take to get the tickets. Would they actually be there? Have I read the instructions right? Would we miss the first train? Yes I worry a lot! It may be something to do with being out of my comfort zone or the fact that I really don't like having to work to timescales these days. I knew I wouldn't be happy until we made our connections through London and were on the train to Doncaster. We collected the tickets in plenty of time and made our first train heading for London Victoria. It was funny listening to the business people talking on their phones to customers and colleagues, it did however remind me of that thing I need to do soon (get a J.O.B. yuk!). The train was full and got fuller as we got closer to London. All those people made me feel claustrophobic and anxious to get off for our connection via the London underground. We didn't have a clue how it all worked when we got off the train. Did we have to pay through the underground ourselves or did the tickets cover us for that? Which line did we need? It was all very confusing and so busy. We made it to what we hoped was the right platform and panicked, there was a train already in, do we get on this? Is it the right one oops too late, the doors shut and it was away people rammed in like sardines. We finally sussed out that we could get on any train regardless of the route given on the booking directions. After a brief journey in the sardine can we found ourselves at London Kings Cross station and eventually on the train heading north. It wasn't a bad journey. As we got further north I noticed that the good old Yorkshire accent was slowly replacing the accents of the south. At Doncaster we changed for Hull, passing Goole. You can actually see the boatyard from the train. It was strange to think we once lived there for so long and Hareni was still sat there. I gave her an imaginary wave and wished her well.

We arrived in Hull and made our way to the marina. I expected to feel quite sad but didn't for some reason. I think it's because I know we can always come back, nothing is forever. We returned our security fobs to the marina and retrieved our car keys. At 3pm we left Hull on a journey neither of us were looking forward to. We went over the Humber Bridge - Triumph Herald leading and headed for the A15. We had to treat this trip a bit like a scooter rally. We didn't want to be doing long journeys on the motorway in the Herald so picked out a route that actually lead us on to our favourite Isle of Wight route. I soon realised that if I were to follow Martyn I would literally just have to follow him regardless of whether or not I thought he was going the wrong way. As we hit the A15 I noticed he had left his indicator on - after 5 miles of flashing my lights and even beeping my horn once he never batted an eyelid - communication on this trip was out of the window! We did OK until we hit Leicester, at 5pm oops! We arrived at Blaby, just south of leicester around 6.15pm. Not to worry, that was the worst bit, we were back in familiar territory now. This is the part of the route we know like the back of our hands.... If only it hadn't started to rain, then rain, then rain some more. I could barely keep up with Martyn, that little white cars a right speed demon, or maybe it's the driver! like I say we were back in familiar territory, Martyn flying off in the distance and me trying to keep up! It was quite scary to be honest and I was shattered. The roads were flooded everywhere, then we hit a section of road covered in diesel. I felt the back end of the car twitch and saw the Herald do the same. This really wasn't fun. I was really hoping that Martyn would want to call it a day and stop for the night. We arrived in Banbury and thankfully Martyn pulled into the petrol station where we usually stop with the scooters. As I got closer behind him I realised I couldn't see through his back window as it was all steamed up. That meant he couldn't see out or see me! Time to make a decision. Following a cup of coffee and some chocolate we decided to find somewhere to stop for the night. We took directions from the chap in the garage and after getting lost a few times made it to a Holiday Inn and luckily got a room. It was only 8.30pm and already dark outside, what happened to the summer?! They only had a twin room left but we weren't about to start looking for somewhere else to stay so we payed the extortionate room rate and headed for the pub! We ate at a popular American / Italian restaurant. It was so funny! We were about the only people in there and got the only waitress that didn't speak English. She was very nice though and apologised for getting everything wrong on a regular basis. It was all a bit Fawlty Towers! I tried to order wine, bad move. She couldn't understand what I was asking for, however after some pointing and gesticulating we thought we had it sorted. Martyns Peroni arrived but no wine, the starters arrived, but no wine. At this point we were told that they didn't have that particular wine so I chose another. 10 minutes later we were told that they couldn't open the bottle as they had lost the bottle opener. After a trip next door to the pub and after I had received my main I got a glass of wine hallelujah!! We had to laugh, the food was terrible, the service amazingly bad but it was entertaining! So much so that we still left a tip!
I had a great nights sleep and awoke refreshed and glad for the rest. Martyn however complained that the bed was so uncomfortable he hadn't been able to sleep. It was only when I sat on his bed to put my shoes on I realised the difference. It turns out that in twin rooms they put one soft mattress in and one hard mattress. Martyn got the soft one oops! Glad it wasn't me though!!
As we prepared to complete our journey we wondered if we would see any scooters. Under normal circumstances today would be the day that we would rise very early and set about our journey on the scooters to the Isle of Wight. In fact at the very time we left Banbury we would normally be travelling through. This trip wasn't planned to coincide with that it was just another strange coincidence. The first scooter we saw however was in the back of a van. Not sure if it had started it's journey in there or not...... We saw a couple of other scooters but not as many as normal, maybe the weather had put some off.
Four and a half hours later we arrived in Brighton, tired and stiff. It had been a long couple of days. The weather in Brighton was terrible, it had actually been sunny back up North. The boat felt damp and cold. We knew it had been very cold on board as the clock had stopped - it only usually does that if we are away for a long time over winter! At least we were back and remarkably in one piece The Herald had done great and I was glad the Saxo kept going. We had spent approximatley nine hours on the road from Hull to Brighton. The journey from Goole to Portsmouth by scooters used to take four to five hours - I know which I prefer although the seat in the Saxo is a little easier on the bottom!
So we have our cars, we've sold Hareni and Martyn has had a job interview, only one thing for it now, guess I've got to get a J.O.B. (Shudder...!!).