Andy's Amazing Absence

It was far too early on a wet Sunday morning in April when Jason and I ventured off to a Tesco car park in Surrey. No, we weren't going shopping, we were going on an MX5 run. However, this one was different from the usual ones we go on. This time we were leading the pack!!

Andy, the routemaster, was unable to make the drive, and Bob, our area co-ordinator wasn't sure if he would be able to stay for the whole drive. So Jason was asked if he would mind leading, and as I was his passenger, I would be chief navigator!

Immediately we left home the 'what ifs' started... What if no one showed up... what if it rained all day... what if we lost people... what if we went too slow... what if we went too fast...?

By the time we arrived at the car park (via a couple of extra roundabouts and a dual carriageway - we took the scenic route and I was just double checking my navigation skills - honest!) we had already met up with Bob, so at least we had one other car and it wouldn't be a total disaster!

By the start of the run there was a nice group of 5 cars. This made life a little easier for us as it was an easy number to keep an eye on in the rear view mirror! However we had printed out Andy's directions, and handed them out just in case...

I decided the easiest way would be if I crossed off each of Andy's waypoints as we reached them. This turned out to be a really good move as it was quite easy to get the directions confused at a quick glance.

So, after deciding that the grey skies wouldn't rain, it was roof down and we were off... the first few miles out of town were a bit difficult as there was quite a lot of traffic and so stopped a few times just to make sure we hadn't lost anyone. That would've been awful, to lose a car (or two) within the first 10 minutes. However, quickly we all settled down into a nice tidy line and headed off into the Surrey countryside.

The first half of the drive was about an hour and a half long, around 45 miles in distance. Usually I sit back in the passenger seat watching the world go by, making the odd 'oooooh nice house', 'look bunnies', 'ducks', 'oooooh another nice house' type noises. However, this time I had to work!

I was constantly looking for the next turn, roundabout, T-junction etc and asking Jason how many miles we had travelled from the previous point. Meanwhile Jason was making sure he stuck to the speed limits, while constantly checking that everyone was still behind us. He didn't want to be too slow or too fast, so it was 30 in a 30 zone, but the microsecond we reached the 60 zone he stuck his foot to the floor and off we shot!

Slowly but surely I crossed off more of the morning's waypoints until the Deepwell Inn, in Northchapel, our lunch destination was in sight and our last point of the morning.

After a leisurely lunch we felt more confident as we headed off for the journey home. This section was faster and more twisty turny - a little too soon after lunch I thought. However, we drove through some lovely villages and I managed to get in a few 'oooooh nice house' comments.

Just as we were a few points from the end, disaster struck. We got lost! Ok, not lost exactly, but we missed a turning, or misread the directions or something. We took the next right hand turn but I knew it was wrong. So quickly we had to back up and make sure the other cars hadn't followed us... They all quickly pulled off the road, but we managed to confuse a cyclist as we ended up having 4 cars all pointing 'inwards' at the junction as he cycled between us.

A couple of miles down the road we decided to finish the run as time was getting on and as we had lost the trail, the route wasn't so scenic. It had been a good learning experience leading the group and I'm sure we would do it again if asked. However, although you don't spend the entire trip looking at the back of another 5, you do spend an awful lot of time looking in the mirror counting how many 5s are behind you!

Report by Nicole Hill

All in all, we really enjoyed the drive (stress and all)!
Thanks are due to Andy and Nicole - not having driven a practice run, it would have been easy to get lost if it weren't for the excellent directions and navigation - Jason.