This is where it all started at 1pm on Wednesday. You are going to need your maps, folks ...
We'd left home with Fanny in tow at 8am and got as far as three miles north of Tebay services on the M6 when the engine suddenly lost power so I pulled over to the hard shoulder and called the AA (Automobile Association, vehicle rescue and recovery).
About 2.30pm the first AA chap turned up, diagnosed "injector fault" and suggested that we drive in "limp mode" to the service station where we could review our options in comfort.
Our planned journey was: home - overnight at Sandbach (Cheshire) - two nights near Shaftesbury - ten nights near High Wycombe - one night at Sandbach and then home. And I had the basic package from the AA which simply gets your taken to the nearest garage if repair is needed. Until we got Fanny that's all I'd ever thought necessary as I reckoned I could always rent a car to continue my journey. But renting something with a towbar is a little trickier ... so I upgraded to AA Relay, which takes you to a chosen destination.
We considered our possible destinations and decided that High Wycombe was the best option as we could leave the car with a garage for several days if necessary. That was a relay journey of 252 miles. If you upgrade during a recovery you only get the first 50 miles free, after that they apply a mileage charge (£2.50/mile). But I still reckoned it was the only choice as we deffo wanted to be at High Wycombe. We abandoned the side trip to Shaftesbury.
(Saving £60 in campsite fees and £80 in diesel costs).
The truck for the first leg of the recovery appeared at 7pm. We reckoned our ETA at final destination would be around 3-4am.
Sent by magick