jpsellars.co.uk

I’ve clocked up one or two miles over the weekend just gone. Actually, it was about 600 and mainly in the Maestro. North Wales seemed as good a place as any for a proper shakedown. When it comes to fulfilment behind the wheel I’ve always thought of the Highlands as being the place to go (at least within UK shores), but satisfyingly there’s some strong competition closer to home. To the B4501, all I can say is… Wow!

But there was just one thing that let it down, and it’s increasingly becoming an issue for me at the moment. Just what lengths does one have to go to to accomplish the simple task of obtaining a tank full of fuel these days? Or even half a tank.

The game goes a bit like this. With the needle hovering just above the red I head for the nearest filling station only to find it’s closed. This is rural Wales and it’s after 6pm. No problem, there’s one in a town 8 miles away. That’s closed too. Sat nav says the next one is in Betws-y-Coed another 20 miles away, low fuel light has been on for a while by now and sat nav is useless anyway because the battery has had enough for one day. It’s a long drive and every hill sends the needle veering ominously off the bottom of the dial. When I do find a filling station that’s open and has fuel, every car in the area seems to have beaten me to it. Sound familiar?

Of course, there are good commercial reasons why the independent filling station is a dying breed in the 21st Century, but at what cost I wonder?