Markets, Mills, Trains, Boats and Dales! Monday 01 August 2011

Off to the North today on our Markets, Mills, Boats, Trains and Dales holiday with 45 passengers. I wish all holidays had this many on! One day?!
I have had to take Brian’s coach as the one I normally drive needs a couple of jobs doing to it.
I always enjoy the north of England and am looking forward to this five day break that has a lot of content.
My first pick-up is in Petersfield and have told the taxi company that the coach will be there at 09:00 to leave at 09:30.
I get the coach early and am in Petersfield just after 08:00, giving me time for a bacon sandwich and coffee before the journey.
Dave Goodall has dropped his wife Pat’s mobility scooter in the office and I wheel it down to the coach.
It is only just 08:15 and there are two passengers there already! The taxi has picked them up very early. I load there cases and then disappear for my breakfast. I can’t miss my bacon sarnie now can I?!
From Petersfield we pick up in Liphook and then on to Guildford for our last passengers.
It is great this morning as we get to drive through the long awaited Hindhead Tunnel which finally opened last week. It will make a huge difference to some of our trips.
It is also exciting going through it!
It is all motorway today with our first stop at Toddington services before continuing on the M1 to the M6.
As we approach the M6 there are signs warning of long delays between junctions 10 to 11. These signs continue as we join the M6 so I decide to take the toll road and miss the traffic. By the time we turn off the delay is back to junction 8.
I stop at Norton Canes service area, which is on the toll road, and I am not alone! It is heaving with at least twenty other coaches parked up. This will be fun!
Surprisingly for the amount of coaches the actual self service restaurant is very quiet with no queues. It is a different story by the toilets where everybody seems to be milling about and the noise is like a busy school canteen.
The one thing I didn’t like was outside where most of the rubbish bins were full and overflowing.
These motorway stops are okay when quiet but when they are this busy they are not a lot of fun.
The one bonus of stopping here is that they give you a voucher for the toll road saving me about a tenner. Result!
From here it is a couple of hours to our hotel, the Mercure Dunkenhalgh Hotel, in Clayton les Moor.
As I pull off the M65 I come to a set of lights with a choice of turning right or left. I am sure I have to go left but the trusty sat nav is sending me right. I turn right. Wrong! It is a bit of a pain turning round as there are a shortage of roundabouts but I manage it in the end and soon arrive at the hotel.
It is an impressive drive up to it and looks like a cross between a country house and a castle. I pull up outside the main entrance and immediately the staff are out with room keys/cards and menu’s for tonight’s dinner. The luggage is also taken away quickly and efficiently and I am soon parked in the large car park behind the hotel.
My room, and many of the passengers, is in a courtyard with all the rooms looking like little houses. I hope the inside is as nice as the outside.
The courtyard is situated between the main hotel and the impressive looking leisure centre.
My room is big and roomy but does have a musty smell which I deduce is coming from the curtains. It does have Sky Sports on the television and I manage to watch the end of the test match with England thrashing India.

I have a drink in the bar before dinner and am sitting at a table close to the bar. It is warm today and a touch muggy. One of my ladies is at the bar ordering her drink when she mentions the heat to the barmaid who replies that it is unusually warm.
The lady then says she is feeling the heat and it is probably due to being up north where the air is thinner!! I nearly drop my beer laughing. Only nearly mind.
Dinner was nice but extremely hot, my shepherd’s pie couldn’t be eaten straight away as it would burn my mouth.
We are obviously on a cheaper menu which is understandable but the one thing that has annoyed me is the people have to walk to the bar to order a drink. The waiting staff, all lovely and attentive, are not taking orders for drinks at the table. I think it is a bit off to have to leave the table and queue at the bar during your meal. I am sitting away from the group at a table on my own and I’m being served drinks! Or rather have been offered.