09 Oct 07
News that visitors to the British seaside will inadvertently take a stupendous 160,000 tonnes of sand home with them in the car each year -the equivalent of 50 million buckets- will come as no surprise to Discovery owners.
Half way through our annual family pilgrimage to an inevitably soggy and overcrowded West Country, the missus and I came to two conclusions. Firstly, the advent of children changes what used to be a holiday (books, booze and brasseries) into merely running a crèche with someone you used to go out with. And, secondly, we're never going to get the Disco totally sand-free again...
According to the statistics, 54% of the sand in question is transported from coast to car via shoes, 33% is carried in towels and blankets, 5% loiters in your bucket and spade, 1% is caught in newspapers and books and 6% makes it on board via our hair and bodies. Spookily, women export more sand than men - an average of 7kg per annum compared to 5kg for men. I've been trying really very hard not to think about what may account for this discrepancy...
None of which tells us where the sand actually ends up on board. But I can verify that, in the case of the Land Rover, the vast majority seems to enjoy hiding out in the vicinity of the third row of seats. Folded flat, they do effect an entirely practical loadspace, for which we're relentlessly grateful. But the gaps between various folding elements are easily wide enough to allow for cascades of sand on a par with those which ultimately entomb the pyramid-raiding baddies in any number of Return of the Mummy reruns.
