After seeing my Son and my Cousin it was time to leave Essex and head north. I was heading for Heyfield in Derbyshire, as I wanted to see my family in nearby Stockport for a few days. It was a day I really wasn’t looking forwards to. You know that feeling you have when you have to go to the dentists…? You know you have to go but you don’t want to.
I wanted to stay in Essex a bit longer, mainly to see more of my Son but mostly because I had a lot of motorways to travel – and I really hate motorways. I really do. It’s not too bad in a car, but on two wheels its relentlessly and mind-numbingly boring, even though I have a headset in my helmet connected to my phone and my MP3 player.
It’s also frustrating when all you want to do is ride at a constant speed and you are forever having to slow down because someone in a Citroen Berlingo driving at 67 mph wants to overtake a van doing that’s doing 65. And then there’s the people who think two blinks of their indicator gives them the right to pull-out into your lane and in front of you. Why is is always someone in an SUV…?
Anyway… I got on the road early, hit the M25 and then the M6. I did consider heading towards Sheffield on A-roads and then branching off, but I decided to just get on with it and get some motorway mileage done. As I started joined the M1 and left Watford behind it started raining. My textile jacket and trousers can survive modest rain with ease, but the rain that started was truly biblical, but fortunately there was a service station up ahead which meant I could stop and put on my waterproof over suit, over boots and gloves, and looking like the Michelin man, I got back on the bike and aquaplaned north.
The rain continued as far as the midlands, so on the M6 at Stafford I stopped to remove my waterproofs and pack them away, and after a quick pit-stop at the gent and the Costa coffee, it was back on the bike and the final stretch of the journey.
A boring and relentless day, but when I got to my campsite near Heyfield the weather was great. Sunny, warm and most of all – peaceful. when I was booking onto the sire I saw a chiller cabinet with ice-creams so after paying for my pitch I treated myself to a Magnum ice-cream which was thoroughly enjoyed – before putting up the tent, getting the kettle-on and reclining in my tent to enjoy the most wonderous and well-appreciated mug of tea. Life can be good sometimes, but it can be even better with a big mug of tea.
