Great Yarmouth

Doing a days work for a well known metal stockholder involved a single journey from Southampton to Great Yarmouth. By the time I got to the yard in Nursling Industrial Estate, the wagon had been loaded and strapped down. It was an old Y reg Daf rigid flatbed with a day cab. Well this is going to be fun was my initial thought, and how little did I know. I've never been to Great Yarmouth before, so after a quick check on the map and a run around to make sure that there were wheels at every corner and the lights were working, I set off out of the gate with a full fuel tank and an eagerness to get on and get the job done. 

As I fought to get to grips with the slackest 6 speed box I'd ever come across, the Sat Nav finally gave me an ETA. 4 hours and 40 minutes journey time. Well that's just bloody fantastic, I was going to have to use my 10 hours of driving today in order to get there and back and that's if the traffic was kind.
Once onto the motorway network it was quite painless sat at 56 with the cruise control engaged, even the West section of the M25 was reasonably easy. 

4 hours and 20 minutes later I found a lay-by on the A47 that had the usual ubiquitous burger van and stopped for my 45 minutes break. One cup of tea and a very nice sausage sarnie later I got back onto the road and hit the first bit of single carriageway since leaving Southampton. It was a beautiful run in to Great Yarmouth along the A47, the views were quite spectacular and I had a real sense of wanting to come back to this part of the world and spend a bit of proper time having a look around.
Into Great Yarmouth itself and entering the last roundabout before getting to my destination when it happened. The brakes slammed on and my air gauges dropped to zero. 

A few choice words later and with my foot slammed to the floor on the accelerator to try and build up air pressure, I realised that the air wasn't building up and this particular lorry wasn't going to go anywhere anytime soon. A phone call to the depot ensured that a recovery van was on it's way and I set about standing behind the lorry in order to try and direct traffic in my lane around rather than up the backside of the broken down lorry. It was in interesting hour spent waiting for the recovery van, it included 2 visits from the local constabulary, a break in attempt from local youths, complete ignorance from other lorry drivers, only one offer of help from a very kind lady car driver and an altercation with a very large lady on her mobility scooter who was trying to cross over the pedestrian crossing that an 18 tonne broken down Daf was blocking. I'm very sorry but I just couldn't push it out of the way, which is what she was expecting me to do.

Eventually a vey helpful fitter by the name of Scott from a nearby Daf Dealership, Ford and Slater, turned up, put out some basic traffic management and set about trying to fix the problem.

Not the best place to break down.

After raising the cab and prodding around in the engine gubbins, Scott pronounced that the compressor head had packed in. So, after several phone calls to check for spare parts, we decided to try and move it to a safer location and carry out the repairs at the roadside rather than recover the lorry with a tow truck. 

Knackered compressor was the cause

4 hours after the breakdown and I was back on the road. 5 minutes later, I was pulling into my delivery yard, Alicat Workboats, and getting unloaded. 

The next challenge was getting back to Southampton within my hours or finding a hotel to stay in, but that escapade is for another time. All said and done though, I actually enjoyed my day trip to Great Yarmouth and met some wonderful people.