Mark Whalley made an incredible 700-mile round trip from the West Midlands just to buy a gas barbecue from a Scots garden centre.
The 52-year-old al fresco dining fan drove all the way from his home in Solihull, near Birmingham to Cardwell Garden Centre, in Inverclyde to pick up his favourite piece of barbie equipment – a high class Ziggy 2 Grillstream gas barbecue.
And while he was at Cardwell a fire pit also caught his eye and he bought that as well.
Mark explains: “I really wanted the Ziggy 2 barbecue and I searched everywhere online and the only one I could find on sale in the country was at Cardwell Garden Centre.
“I’ve had this particular model of gas barbecue for years, but it was getting a bit temperamental and it needed replacing. I wanted to get the same model because it’s a great barbecue, it’s solidly built, allows us to grill or bake and we’ve always had great results with it. In fact, it’s never let us down."
And Mark joked: “I could see online that this barbecue was still available in Australia and South Africa, where it is classed as a real top end model, but that was just a bit too far for me to travel and Cardwell is much closer for me to travel in my electric car!”
He continued: “It might seem a long way to go to buy a barbecue, but it was worth every mile and every minute travelling. I left my house at 7.30am and didn’t get home until 1am the next day,
“Both my wife Tracy and I enjoy our barbecues in the garden during the summer and I’m really looking forward to using my new barbecue this weekend with some friends."
Cardwell’s retail general manager, Paul Carmichael said: “We’re delighted we were able to supply Mark with his favourite gas barbecue.
“We really appreciate the effort Mark made driving all the way from Solihull to pick up his barbecue. That must have been the furthest anyone has travelled to buy anything thing from us.
“We hope he has many years enjoyment from the barbecue.”
Pictured: Mark Whalley, left, with the barbecue he made a 700-mile round trip to buy and Cardwell staff member, David Douglas.
