14th June 25. Saturday job, and an amazing memory.

No prizes for guessing what today's job entails.

Yep, Delivery of an Audi Q7 ..

This is the car collected yesterday from Land Rover Aylesbury (Sorry, Land Rover Buckinghamshire)

Obviously a trade in for a Land Rover product. Of which the Defender seems to be the car to have from the company now. Having worked for them previously. Back in 2009 when Defenders were not the cool So called "Chelsea Tractors" (I hate that title). They are today.

We used to have to have at least one Defender demonstrator on our company car list. And nobody wanted it. So I, being crafty and loved that nobody had wanted one and found out. They were at that time, classed as commercial vehicles. Therefore not attracting a single penny in company car tax. So I gladly took the Stornoway Grey 90 XS station wagon. And drove it for around a year and absolutely fell in love with it. Only giving it up, when my patience with the dealership ran out as did so many other staff in my time there. I counted 14 sales executives coming and going in only 18 months there. Along with numerous sales managers where I generally had to stand in for. Got no thanks. So enough was enough and off to BMW. More on that later but a wonderful six years there. And only today found out that BMW dealership is closing for good. In my next Land Rover role.. I was very lucky to have a choice of company car and the defender was being phased out. So I had to slum it in a Range Rover Sport, Autobiography. For only £180 a month. The best company car scheme I've ever had.

There I was also lucky to have the opportunity to deliver a sold 2013 Defender 110 XS station Wagon to the Highlands of Scotland. Driven al the way from Yeovil in Somerset to Alladale Wilderness Reserve. Which is difficult to actually tell you where it is. But it was 636 Miles from Yeovil

Yeovil to Alladale Wilderness Reserve 636 miles one way.

It was a 20 minutes drive, off the nearest road. Which was once we turned left a few miles north of Ardgay. And that was a road in the middle of nowhere. I had bought another Defender before we left. To be picked up the day before in Inverness. This was a Silver 110 XS station wagon. A careful appraisal on collection as Defender's bought up here and near the sea can have corrosion issues. But this one was good.

Defending the Forth Rail Bridge

And two of us drove the Defenders to this place and used the second one to drive back. So we could sell it in Yeovil. Now I think about this incredible trip of a lifetime. Why did I not think of doing this work years ago?

On arrival at the reserve. The buyer of the Defender greeted us. Myself and my late wife. And said. Let's take it for a test drive. He jumped into the driver's seat and we got in the back.

He was going to show us the land. It was simply awe inspiring. He took us to see the "girls" the Highland Cows. Out by a river. This was another 25 minutes drive from the big house. He then pointed out to a mountain range in the distance and said. See those mountains. Our land goes way beyond. We were open mouthed the whole time.

Showing us the secluded lodges they rented out to the super rich for hunting and fishing. The whole place was incredible.

Arriving back at the house there were deer grazing on the lawn. And it was simply like a postcard. The whole place.

I made a bit of a photo diary of the cars journey from Yeovil for the buyer and presented him with the photos. Should he want to use them I have added some here to see the progress.

About 5 miles from a road of any kind

I must try and get back there. I see our Defender they bought is still on there online brochure. It's some place, and a different world.

Two Defenders on route

The lawn at the house

The Girls.

Defender leaving England

The one thing for me personally. Was the reason a lot of the wealthy patrons of this place. Go there to shoot and kill those beautiful animals. The offices we were invited into to rest before leaving. As beautiful as this house was. There was no mistaking the importance of shooting. I get these animals have to be controlled in numbers for a reason (actually I don't get it. They have every right to roam freely on their land. Just because a human being at some point probably murdered someone else to obtain that land shouldn't mean they do as they please with it) so the barbaric nature of killing these beasts are displayed with pride all over. The people who call these animals and birds beautiful and enjoy blasting them with shotguns are just the most hypocritical stupid people you can find.

Apologies but I just couldn't kill anything so ignore me.

We left that place and drove the second Defender back to Inverness for our nights stay. The whole journey there we said very little. The memories of that last leg of our journey and going off-road into the valleys of the Highlands and meeting the people and animals we did. We were just open mouthed and speechless. I was very fortunate to have worked at that Land Rover dealer to have had that experience.

Where was I?

Oh yes. Delivering an Audi Q7 to Guildford Audi. Easy journey from Aylesbury at 7am on a Saturday. Arriving at Guildford an hour and a half later and there was someone already there for the handover.

Jumped on a train to Dover via Tunbridge. To collect a Vauxhall Mokka E for my customer in Aylesbury.