On Tour

'This is my first tour with the RSC, though I've been driving artics for quite a number of years. Before I was working mostly on the continent, doing general haulage. This is more demanding because of the places you have to park the van - the RSC tour of Julius Caesar is to leisure centres which can be awkward to get into.

If I can't do anything else I can drive well. It's been in the family for generations - my father and grandfather were both drivers as well. I joined a haulage company at 17. Now I'm doing what I like most. You've got to be patient and you've got to have a good head on your shoulders. You get to see places you haven't seen before, and I enjoy that. Though with this tour you have to bear in mind that you are going to leisure centres, which tend to be in rather out-of-the-way places, down odd little lanes. The worst drive was from Barrow to Whitehaven, up the coast road, which was scarcely wide enough for one car, never mind a huge lorry. The nicest place I've been to this time was Truro.

I've got to enjoy it or I couldn't handle it. If you're stuck in a 20-mile traffic jam, well that's the route you've chosen and you just have to live with it. Driving is pretty tiring so we tend to just eat, drink and sleep in our spare time. I've got a small gas burner and a kettle and a portable telly in the van, which is helpful. Sometimes we go out in an evening to a restaurant, but everything I own is in the lorry, so I don't like to leave it for too long. When I eventually get home, I park the lorry and get a bus or a cab home. It's great not to be in the driving seat.'

Peter Wells works for G H Lucking & Sons, contracted to drive the RSC's 'Julius Caesar' equipment on its current tour of leisure centres

(Photograph omitted)