How we went on a very long road trip.

Last Friday happened to be our fifth wedding anniversary. Five years of very good times so we decided to celebrate. However, it would have been way too easy to go to a nice hotel, or out for a meal. Instead we decided the best thing to do was drive 600 miles and collect a load of furniture.

We are in the process of refurbishing two of the suites. We needed new tables and chairs for two of them and we could have bought something from a local furniture store.

It's just that we couldn't find anything we thought was nice enough to go in the beautifully renovated suites. My great love is 1960s furniture, Ercol in particular, and the image in my head was of lovely vintage Ercol tables. So we started trawling around, and eventually found two Ercol table and chair sets that would be perfect. The only drawback was that one was in Swansea and the other in Weymouth. So we had the excellent idea that we would celebrate our love for each other by sitting on the M5 and M4. The romantic bit would be a night in a hotel in the middle, the fact that Ercol furniture is made of wood, and the fifth wedding anniversary is wood, apparently.

So at 8.30 am we set off. We had 2 iphones, some caffeine and an empty van. After passing our favourite copse on the Devon-Cornwall border we heard the call of IKEA, sadly a lot of others had heard the call too. Half term was in full flow, and children were everywhere. Arguments were de rigeur and after we nearly had a set to in the curtain department we retreated. Tys had meatballs, I had pancakes and we accepted that we were unequal to the demands of IKEA.

Phase 2 commenced - the drive to Swansea. After the horrifying discovery that they charge you £11.50 to get into Wales, we finally hit Swansea, entering perilously close to the DVLA building. Thirty minutes later we were leaving Swansea, a beautiful Ercol table and chairs in the back of the van. 

A quick stop at some very Welsh services and we were on our way again, skimming past Port Talbot, waving at the River Severn, and flying towards Weymouth. This part was much more rewarding as the villages of Devon and Dorset went trundling past. We eventually hit Weymouth at 6.45pm, to be greeted by a lovely man called Gary who helped us load the Ercol into the van. Finally, full of furniture we headed for Abbotsbury and the joys of the Ilchester Arms.

The Ilchester Arms is what one might call a traditional pub with rooms. We were housed in the Charlotte honeymoon suite, being the only guests. Suite was a little ambitious, as to me that suggests a number of rooms, not just a bedroom and bathroom. It did, however, have a four poster bed and his and hers sinks, a delight not previously experienced during our marriage. Dutifully cleaning our teeth at separate sinks, I can honestly say it did nothing for me, but I’m glad I had the chance to try it.

Breakfast was the expected full English, with excellent fried bread. We were entertained by our waitress who told us tales of her Shetland ponies, secure in the belief that we were intimately acquainted with every single person and pony in the tale.

Then we headed home, but with a quick stop off first. The weather had turned beautiful, the early morning mist clearing and the sun beating down. Nearby was the famous Chesil Beach and the lagoon, so we headed off for a quick walk. The mist was heavy again on the hill, but down at sea level the sun was blazing. The beach is formed by waves constantly throwing up stones, much like any beach I suppose. The great bit is that the stones vary in size along the length. At one end you get pea gravel, in the middle, where the lagoon starts you get stones about 2cm across, at the far end they are proper potato sized pebbles. Apparently smugglers used to be able to tell which part of the beach they had landed on by the size of the stones. 

The rain began as we left Dorset, and persisted all the way through Devon. We were beginning to despair but as we arrived home we were greeted by sunshine and the most beautiful rainbow.  It had been a mammouth trip but hopefully the tables and chairs will be appreciated!