Day 19! We woke up nice and early for our final drive home. When we cancelled the Isle of Skye we had 2 extra days to fit in so we gave ourselves more time in the Cairngorms and more time on the NC500, which was absolutely needed!
We also had to amend the rest of the trip to fall in line and that also meant that we could either stay somewhere for the sake of staying somewhere tonight, or we could head home – so we decided to head home!
The final drive
I don’t think either of us appreciated just how exhausted we were – a good kind of exhausted, but still exhausted! So heading back a day early, meaning we could sleep in our own bed for an extra night before heading back to work and get a head start on washing and all those fun chores, was absolutely the right decision for us!
So we started the 2 and a half hour drive down the M1!
We headed off and the sun was shining, the weather then couldn’t decide between rain or sunshine so opted for both, unfortunately not at the same time! Everything was going well and we were making good time.
Throughout the entire honeymoon we have played the new car game – the 71 plate cars came out just before we left so we decided to have a competition go who could spot the most whilst we were away! Our overall total was 54 and it had managed to keep us very well entertained during all the driving!
We had decided where we were going to stop for petrol, having not looked at the news for the last 3 weeks, and all was well! Until we got to Junction 15a and saw that our estimated arrival time had gone from 12:30 to 13:30 – what the hell!?
We then slowly came to a standstill and sat in standstill traffic for nearly an hour! We genuinely didn’t love for what felt like an eternity – people had gotten out of their cars and were walking around on the motorway! We hadn’t experienced this level of traffic for the last 3 weeks, it was a bit surreal!
The fuel crisis catches up with us
By the time we eventually got through the traffic and then the roadworks, we stopped at Newport Pagnell Services where we were shocked at how busy it was!
We didn’t queue to fill up for diesel, but we did go through the HGV petrol point and found that only 1 pump out of 3 had any fuel left – how bizarre!
When we then joined back into the motorway, we looked at the other side of the carriageway and cars were queuing onto the motorway to come off at the services! It looked as dangerous as it sounds, we couldn’t believe it!
We had been warned by a couple of friends that getting petrol was nearing impossible, we also had a text from the hire company about which local stations had fuel left but we were shocked by the reality of it! In hindsight, we were super lucky to have been able to fill up with fuel at all!
Handing Marv back
We dropped Marv off with the hire company, unloaded the van and packed up the car and then had a chat with one of the guys who run the company about the scrape and excess, he was really genuine about the whole thing and said he would keep in contact with us about getting it fixed etc.
When we got into our car and headed home we both breathed the biggest sigh of relief, we weren’t ready for our honeymoon adventure to end but we were both ready to hand back Marv – he had caused us quite a bit of stress during the last 3 weeks and we were glad to have handed him back without any other incidents!
Home comforts
When we got home, we unpacked the car and then our local desert van pulled up pretty much outside our house so we decided to treat ourselves to some desert! Michael had a brownie and ice cream and I had a waffle and ice cream!
We then proceeded to try and out as much stuff away as possible and put a load of washing on before collapsing and having a nap!
As Michael had driven the entire time in the last 3 weeks, I had promised him that he could have anything he wanted for dinner tonight and I would drive. We had originally booked a table at the FatCap Smokehouse in Bedford but cancelled our reservation as we were both too tired to get dressed up and eat out!
Michael instead decided he would like Wingers in Milton Keynes so we headed out to pick up our tea! On our way we thought, ah I only have 2 bars of fuel left (less than 70 miles) I had better fill up – what a royal mistake that was!
We tried to go to Tesco in Flitwick and instantly regretted our decision! They were queuing for at least a mile and the only way to avoid the queue meant that I ended up back on the M1! We then tried at least 4 more petrol stations before picking up our dinner, with no success – at this point my petrol light had come on!
We decided to pop into Michaels parents in order to eat our tea whilst it was still warm and to regroup as to where we could fill up with fuel on our way home! We tried at least 4 more stations on the way home, again with no success and my petrol light is still on (as of Sunday at 4pm!) – good way to delay going back to work! We got home and headed straight to bed!
One last local adventure
Sunday we woke up and another reason we came home early was that the Stewartby Chimneys, where we live, were being demolished today and we wanted to head down and watch.
We didn’t know what to expect, I think we assumed that most the village would show up, but it felt like half the county showed up! The roads were rammed by 10am, with the demolition not due to take place until gone 11am!
So we headed down at 10 to grab a bacon sandwich and a coffee from the cafe, to then meet up with our local running group. It was that busy that Michael queued for over 25 minutes! We then met up with friends and waited for the big demolition. We had one friend who was down on site as part of the demolition who was giving us updates!
It was sad to see them being demolished, there was at one point 167 chimneys and now there are none, quite literally the end of an era! We then decided to enjoy the sunshine filled day and head to the pub for a couple of drinks – clearly still on holiday mode!
Until the next adventure
And with the sun shining we decided to relax for the rest of the day before Michael goes to work tomorrow!
I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who has read our blogs, we did this as a way to capture the memories of our honeymoon in a different way to photos but knowing people have made a conscious effort to read the blogs on a daily basis, it’s made them easier to write!
We have also been discussing our next adventures and excess dependent, we hope to be out exploring more of the UK as soon as we can – with the full NC500 top of the list! And when we get round to doing it, we will absolutely be writing all about it!
So it’s a peace out for now, but hopefully not for long! ✌🏼