I’ve been managing with a small electric car for several years (you know the size – where the boot isn’t big enough so you end up with boxes on the back seats, then the passenger seat, then in all the footwells, stacked high and filling every space), contending with more than my fair share of rutted farm tracks, gravel access roads, swollen fords, sudden deluges, flooded lanes, late night snow, freezing fog, hilltop cloud, steep junctions, mountain passes and – the bane of any electric car driver’s life – unexpected and very lengthy night-time route closure diversions. Together with a battery that barely got me home at night – especially in winter – and a computer chip fault that put it in the garage for 7 months, it’s made for a challenging few years as a rural travelling chef!

So welcome to my new 4×4, which swallows as many plates, pans, trays, serving boards, boxes, cool bags, cutlery racks, cups, glasses, tablecloths, towels, chairs and bags of shopping as I care to throw at it (with suspension that doesn’t translate potholes and bumps directly into shattered crockery and cracked glass). After a lot of hard work to get here, I’m very relieved and excited to be driving this around the Lake District, Yorkshire Dales, North York Moors, North Pennines and beyond. Winter is coming.