A MAN made a 700-mile journey to a Gourock garden centre to buy a gas barbecue he has searched far and wide for.

Mark Whalley drove from his home in Solihull near Birmingham all the way to Cardwell Garden Centre to purchase the high class Ziggy2 Grillstream.

He said he made the trip because nowhere else had the item he was looking for.

The 52-year-old said: “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."

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All in, the remarkable round trip took a total of 17-and-a-half hours but Mark insists it was worth it.

He added: “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.

"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.”

Paul Carmichael, general manager at Cardwell, was thrilled to welcome such a far-travelled customer.

He said: “That must have been the furthest anyone has travelled to buy anything thing from us.

“We hope Mark has many years of enjoyment from the barbecue.”