Enjoy, hopefully you are going with Northlink more expensive but they don’t play bumper cars with boats

Easy lunchtime trundle back from Northumberland to sunny south Lanarkshire earlier. Roads were busy, though it is as holiday today so not abnormal I guess.

I’m on the overnight ferry from Belfast to Birkenhead tomorrow, then hopefully a smooth drive down to Coventry early on Sunday morning, the boat docks at 06.30am!

With everyone on the roads it means the pub & garden is quiet!

Trains were grim today. My alloted seat back down from Glasgow this evening was smack bang in the middle of a fat, orange hen party. Couldn’t get out of the carriage fast enough.

I’m working all weekend driving bags and bikes around Suffolk. Hopefully the Monday Sportive won’t hold things up too much.

A303 update – Honiton to Mere was pretty clear. So we’re now camped by a stream near Bradford on Avon. Lovely 👍

Wouldn’t have wanted to have been going West though 😬 that was heaving.

As in you were returning via Campbeltown?

No, Brodrick. Outward we looked at Campbeltown but that was going to be awkward too so plan was Clainog. In the end we just stayed on Gigha for some extra nights.

Was working in London for a few days. Left NW1 (just edge of Regents Park) at 1545. Got back to Bristol just before 9. 😂

Loads of folk visibly off on their holidays for a week. I just wanted to get home. 😭

Amazingly good journey for us. M1 south, M69 to Coventry then M40 down south. Only delays were M1/M69 junction. Took 2h 40m and a clear run is normally 2h 30m. Amazingly we also set off at 5pm

Home (near Swansea) to Church Stretton in just under two hours via Brecon. Roads clear but all the local pubs booked up for food. Fish and Chips in the Cardingmill Valley was lovely in the sunshine.
Molgrips, whereabouts are you? We’re at Mynd View Pods. Only one pod here mind you. It turns that we are the first booking.

No hate for Birmingham or its inhabitants, but driving by it in either direction makes me feel like a bolus of chewed food trying to force its way past a giant esophageal tumour.

Left Glasgow at 10:30 yesterday, dropped wife and wean at Tory Butlins in Penrith at 14:00, then finally made it to Merthyr Tydfil for BPW at 22:45.

Just down here at Abbeville near Dieppe for an event tomorrow. Easy trip round the M25/M20 (although the other way was a car park) to the Chunnel and then breezed through. Basically the terminal and trains were empty. Then an hour on lovely empty French roads. Zero sign of travel chaos.

South to North through the whole country today. Bit of a nightmare and slow all the way…but north to south looked terrible, with many jams at a full stop.

Seem to be many more breakdowns than there were a few years ago. Is this the consequence of many years of austerity influencing decisions on maintenance (both vehicle and road)?

Even HGVs have stopped using the inside lane of the M1 in Leicestershire because you can lose an articulated lorry down the potholes.

Even HGVs have stopped using the inside lane of the M1 in Leicestershire because you can lose an articulated lorry down the potholes.

I’m working on the RideLondon Women’s race this weekend – the 3-day UCI event, not the mass participation ride.

*Everyone* has been saying about the potholes. I don’t know if it’s worse in Essex but the roads are in pieces in spite of the (fairly limited!) attempts at patchwork repairs that the council have done in advance of the race.

Oh and back to traffic, London and some of Essex is basically shut down today for the Freecycle (central London), the RideLondon mass participation ride and then the final stage of the Women’s race.
I’ll be driving along the Mall and Embankment ignoring all speed limits and with no traffic. 😂

We drove from Sheffield ish to Llanberis yesterday afternoon for an evening ride up Snowdon. A 2hr50min drive took us 4hr, fortunately we left with plenty of time to spare. Booked the YHA etc. without realising it was a bank holiday 🤦

Midlands back to Scottish Borders yesterday avo took us six hours instead of the usual four.
Didn’t even realise it was a bank holiday when we arranged to go.
A few accidents and lots of broken down cars on the hard shoulder.

I’ll be driving along the Mall and Embankment ignoring all speed limits and with no traffic. 😂

Can confirm that doing 40mph along the empty streets of the Mall, Strand and Embankment is amazing! 🤣

The drive out to Heathrow (to return the sponsor vehicle) was less amazing. An hour to go about 12 miles… 🤔

coming through sandringham yesterday (sunday( about 6pm, traffic was dead slow for about 4miles, heading for kings lynn

Return trip on the A303 today… 😬

My wife booked this camping trip btw. I would’ve avoided travelling on the Friday and Monday of a Bank Holiday personally!

The drive out to Heathrow (to return the sponsor vehicle) was less amazing. An hour to go about 12 miles…

That’s normal or even quicker than normal

Crawling down the m6 just north of the Blackpool spur. Might get home today 😒

Drove from Sheffield to Penrith this morning. No drama whatsoever. Even the A66 was uneventful.

Spoke too soon. Coming back last night. M20 from the tunnel closed – not sure why – and re-routed onto little a network of little lanes in Kent. The normal 1hr20min drive back became 2hrs45min. Still not terrible

Macc to West Wales and back yesterday. Almost no traffic.

traffic was dead slow for about 4miles, heading for kings lynn

Isn’t the traffic always dead slow/at a standstill around King’s Lynn?? Its been a hold-up for us for years getting down to Norfolk on holiday. Usually that big roundabout near the Sainsburys.

Follow up questions: will traffic be a nightmare on Saturday? How about Sunday?