It is a bit wet this morning! Well not exactly a bit but a lot wet! The rain is bouncing back off the ground faster than it came down! And guess which doughnut left his coat on the bus which is parked 200m from the hotel entrance!!
We are away at 09:00 and it is still raining persistently!
I am taking the group to Bury where they will board the East Lancs Steam Railway for a journey to Rawtenstall. From here we shall drive through the Lancashire hills to Skipton where a canal boat ride has been arranged and then it is back to our hotel.
We drive across country to Bury and I drop the passengers at the entrance to the railway station. I came here last year on our Pennine Explorer and was pleasantly surprised by Bury. As well as the steam railway it also has a fantastic market and an interesting city centre.
I drive from here to Rawtenstall and await the train. It is still very wet and misty.
They are back on board at 10:40 and we take a drive across the Lancashire Hills on a route I haven't been on before. It is cloudy but the weather does lift in places and I am well impressed by the scenery. We drive through Todmorden and Keighley to Skipton and it is a wonderful drive. A bit like the sandwiches on the way up I will have to pinch this as well!
Once in Skipton I drop the group close to the canal, which is a bit narrow but it doesn't take long for them all to alight. I will have to park in the coach park which will probably be busy as it is market day.
It is busy! Too busy in fact! There is no room for me and the parking lady won't let me stay and wait for a gap. What are they like up this way? I bet she's a Man Utd fan!
There is an overflow coach park outside of town and I head for that. It is located in the grounds of an agricultural College and should be clearly marked.
I find the entrance to the college and approach a roundabout into the coach park. At the roundabout I have two choices, left or right! Left into the parking area or right to god knows where! The road into the coach park is completely blocked by a cattle truck, or rather the trailer unit of a cattle truck.I have no choice but to take the right turn. Big mistake the right turn is definitely the wrong turn!
The road narrows to just about the width of the coach and every ten feet there are wet wooden bollards stopping people driving on the grass. This is a pity as I have come to a bend I can't get around and need to drive on the grass!
I am both annoyed and worried because I am stuck! Bum!
I have already brushed the side of the coach alongside a bollard and luckily with it being wet the scratch is not too bad and should polish out.
I gingerly reverse to try and get an angle to drive into the adjacent car park, stopping only when I hit another bollard! Bollards!!
I catch the side again!
In the end instead of driving around I drive through a bush that thankfully doesn't have any strong tough branches but does put a few more marks on the coach. I eventually get myself out of the mess I was in and am swearing like a trooper as I drive away! Bollards!!
I drive to a nearby trading estate with wide enough roads for me to park wishing I had done this earlier. I was going to assess and polish the damage clean but it is raining rather heavily so only manage to run to the MacDonald's across the road! I eat the burger with the hump! It is always annoying when you mark the coach whoever's fault it is.
After my gourmet lunch I drive back to the coach park and find a space. It has now stopped raining and I manage to get rid of most of the marks with the magic that is T-Cut!
I drive back around to where I had dropped the group earlier and wait for them to return. By the time we are away it is 17:10 and we don't make it back to the hotel until 18:30. Dinner is at 19:00!
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