Myself, Emma and the Mini went on the north Devon grand tour over the august bank holiday weekend, and it was superb, a great weekend had by all.

Saturday was a bit grey and drizzly, we arrived at the camp site at Westward Ho! (why does it need an exclamation mark… its not a very special place!) about midday, pitched our tent in with all the other Mini campers and as nothing else was going on that day we went into Barnstaple.

Sunday was the start of the main couple of days driving, we all met down in Bideford car park at 10:30 where the Mayor and a bagpipe band saw all 202 Minis off. The pavements in the park and streets were lined with people all waving and smiling, brilliant happy mood, even if it was a bit grey and overcast but at least it wasn't raining!

The drive took us through a few small towns, and we parked up at Hartland Quay for some lunch with all the Minis just about fitting in the grass car park. After lunch we left for a further tour for about an hour until we arrived at Chapleton Bartons annual steam fair where we all did a parade lap of their display ring then parked them all up on display on the hill.

After a browse around the steam fair people left when they wanted to and returned home. The first days tour was excellent fun with loads of tooting and waving as people waved back and watched the huge procession.

Bank holiday Monday started with us all parking up on the quay at Westward Ho at 10:30 again with the mayor and bagpipe band playing us off again fortunately the weather was dry and sunny at last. A huge amount of people lined the streets as nearly 300 Minis drove through town tooting and waving and flashing their lights, great atmosphere.

A drive of about 1hr 40 mins through the small towns and a drive past Little Bridge House, a home for disabled children involved loads more waving and tooting. Lunch was stopped for at Lee Abbey by the coast where we just about fitted all the Minis into the grass carpark.

After a brief lunch we were off again towards Ilfracombe, a trip of about 1 hour via the coast with lovely views and upon arrival a huge amount of people lined the streets and waved us in where we all parked up along the sea front.

The organisers presented the cheque (about £15k usually) to the Children's Hospice South West, and a vote was taken for the best Mini and best biker. Which incidentally need a big thanks you for marshaling the event for free, they had nerves of steel driving down the wrong side of the road to get ahead of all of us to close roads and junctions so we could all filter though together.

And for some reason some of the event goers had some bizarre fascination with the 118 advert and were shouting it about loads… quite bizarre!

But overall a great weekend, 300 miles done in total for me, bringing the Mini to just over 3000 miles total . We all returned home very tired but smiling from such a good event, so a big thanks to the organisers and helpers.