As I start
this, it is a little before 8 pm and the sun is still bright and very warm,
something one does not associate with Britain. Five little rabbits are frolicking
on the grass and seem to be far from bedtime. It has been a glorious day, a day
reminiscent of days travelling in Queensland. This morning the television presenters
were warning the public to apply sunscreen; I suspect it is not something that
these Northerners automatically think of on a summer’s day as we antipodeans
do.
We are parked
up on seven acres of mown grassland which would lend itself well to the
planting of wildflowers. In fact, as we
travelled this side of Bury St Edmunds we were delighted by the acres of red
poppy fields just growing wild, not obviously cultivated for the floral market.
T’is the season, indeed!
We left
our busy but very good Club Site this morning about 10.15 am, and threaded our
way through the dozens of children bicycling and tri-cycling upon the park’s
roadways, before setting off across the city on the roundabouts and parkways of
Peterborough, an easy matter on any normal Saturday morning, a route that would
have taken us across to join the A1(M) within five minutes. However today was
the day that the invisible road workers had decided to close the southbound
slip road and we were led on a long convoluted route back through the city by a
collection of poorly designed road signs and down the A17 before joining the
motorway further south. Looking at the map, this might have been a well-planned
alternative , but given that very few folk had been listening to their local
radio station for the traffic advice, if any, we were among five or ten
thousand others all doing the same, and the traffic was jammed all the way
through the suburbs. We spent over an hour either stopped or crawling along at
5 mph. In all fairness The Chauffeur and his fellows on the route managed the
whole business quite well, avoiding road rage, aside from abusing the fact that
the signage was placed too near the detour routes and that there was no evidence
of any work being done to account for the major disruption.
When we
did eventually reach the A1(M) there were no more holdups, and further south
when we turned eastwards, we were reminded that traveling this road toward the
ports at Felixstowe and Harwich on the weekend is so much easier on the
weekend; other days it is a matter of nose to tail international lorries.
Our delay
stop was at the Cambridge Services, and worked well. We were able to park in
the caravan area rather between high walled freighters which we more often than
not find ourselves doing in such situations.
Our final destination
was one of those without a street name or house number, just a series of
directions we had hazarded a guess with when examining the map. We left the A14
at Stowmarket and turned back west, driving up through narrow lanes to Haughley
where we had to back up, having shot past the turning. But this was a small
matter and there was little traffic today on these country lanes, and we pulled
into the field to be met immediately by our welcoming host, Ivan.
The camp
is one of the Caravan & Camping Sites, so is a simple affair; the bathroom
amenities are a work in progress, and while one toilet and one shower room are
already available for us, they are perfectly acceptable.
The rail
line between Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket runs along the bottom of the
section, and while Ivan assured us the trains were few and far between, this
has not proved strictly correct. However the lines are welded together, not the
clackety-clack variety, so the noise factor is minimal.
Our days
ahead are to be spent with family and attending to other matters such as having
the air-conditioning on the vehicle dealt with. If the temperatures in the
vicinity of 30 degrees are to become a regular affair, air-conditioning would
be most appreciated.
No comments:
Post a Comment