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Saturday, July 18, 2020

NOT TODAY, THANK YOU..

I`m told that today is the day when most schools have broken up for the Summer holidays and so families are off on holiday themselves, heading - despite the vagaries of Covid 19 - for various destinations here in the UK and abroad.  Many years ago we used to head off too when our sons were at school - in the time when motorways were scarce commodities, when A roads got a bit busy, when cars were a lot more unreliable.

But we used to join the exodus and almost automatically head south west to Devon or Cornwall.  We used to leave very early in the morning to avoid the worst of the traffic and our aim was always to reach  Mere in Somerset for breakfast at 7.00am and on one memorable occasion we left home in the evening en route to Newquay and spending the night in the car on Exmouth seafront. 

Although those journeys were sometimes difficult, they seem to pale in comparison with what goes on on the major routes these days.  I see that this morning there have been traffic reports of serious hold ups at places like the M25 in Surrey, the inevitable A303 at Stonehenge, the A38 at Saltash, the A30 at various locations such as Boxheater Junction, Carminnow Cross and Stowford. All a bit of a scramble, a nightmare journey.

And when you arrive at somewhere like Padstow, what do you find?  Well, here`s a snap from the webcam outside the Whistlefish Art Gallery by Padstow harbour which I captured late this morning.......



A bit busy is an understatement - people crowding round the harbour, round the narrow streets, car parks full - I`m not sure I see the fun in that any more and I`m pretty sure it may not be worth the hassle of the nightmare journey to get there.   So, for me, not today thank you.  Now I love Padstow, but I`ll leave it until a quieter time of the year, despite my hankering to be there on May Day.

Perhaps our morning was better spent, as it was today, walking the woods, the downland, the quiet beauty of the Kent Downs and the Pilgrims Way.  Here`s what that was like...



Maybe I`m getting older, maybe I prefer peace, quiet and a little solitude away from the madness of the world.  Well, I`ll be 81 tomorrow, so why not?   Have a nice day.



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