Having been diverted to Birmingham after nearly crash landing at Gatwick in the recent storms that flattened England, the best way home was to share a hire car with a friend who also needed to return to Poole.

On seeing the road was blocked near Sandbanks, knowing the road well, I thought I should squeeze the hire car through the police barrier and see for myself what the storm flooding had done. Sure enough the sea had swallowed the road, and a local press photographer was shooting the damage, this was a red rag to a bull, and I backed the car up to get the biggest run up.

Now if I'd of been in my car, I would never have tried to see if it floated/ drove underwater /aquaplaned/ leaked, but since this was a hire car, well, I thought I should drive it like I stole it.

As it turned out the car didn't leak or loose control and we emerged through the barrel to the other side of this lake to a waiting police car, who didn't see the funny side of it. Fortunately, they were so absolutely shocked at what they'd just witnessed, they were unable to come up with a prosecutable offence, and let us squeeze through their road block instead, pleased to see the back of us!