Sunday 24th July 2022

When you arrange things, sometimes you forget how they will impact your life.

I mean, when I booked to go on the railtour, I didn't realise it would mean 20 hours spent travelling. And then having booked to go on an orchid site visit the day after the railtour I would drive over four hours back to Wales, and then on Monday drove the hour to the site, then have nearly six hours to drive home.

In the school holidays. And with traffic chaos in and around Dover still.

That was my choice.

THe reality was that there would be little time for rest, always on the move. Although on the railtour I would be sitting for the duration of the trip, looking out the window, so not doing anything other than looking for things to photograph, but 90 minutes driving before and after it.

So, Sunday morning.

And we had the chores we failed to do Friday and Saturday: washing, shopping, clearing up, before I would leave at one in the afternoon. One thing I learned for JOols is to prepare, so when she went to the beach for a swim, I had a shower, then packed my overnight bag, wrote down postcodes, directions and details of my stopovers, charged camera batteries.

The car was running on fumes, so we went out at ten to fill it up, now costs £90 from empty. And get wild bird food.

Back home for lunch of caprese, I had even made time to make a small focaccia loaf, which I popped in the oven, so come midday it was done and we could listen to Desert Island Discs while eating. It was Kate Moss, the model, and well, her life seemed so shallow. Name dropping inbetween tales of how she was exploited. She seems to have found happiness, which I guess is what we all deserve.

So, at one I packed the car and set off, having to get through the traffic chaos. In fact it wasn't too bad, but I still avoinded the port and Townwall Street, driving towards Whitfield before heading down the Alkham Valley. I only just made the turn as a lorry had sideswiped a Nissan Micra, and blocked the rest of the roundabout.

I turned off, unaffected, and was soon enjoying the open road driving towards Folkestone. THe on ramp to the A20 was open, and no traffic to really hold me up. On the other carriageway, no cars were allowed on the motorway after Maidstone Services, all traffic being sent down the A20, and that road was at a standstill. My worries already were of the journey back on Monday.

NO problems in etting to the top of the motorway before turning west and the M25. Traffic was heavy, and slow in places, bbut I had a layover planned, and a meet up with a fellow orchidist to see a new species for me.

There are between 50 and 60 orchid species, and I have seen many of them, so the weekend was offering me the chance to see two new species. The first of which was the one we had looked for the weekend before, Narrow Lipped Heleborine.

I turned off the motorway and was soon heading down leafy lanes, which partially hid what used to be called the stockbroker belt houses; huge mansions with electronic gateways, where money buys you privacy in a country mansion. The villages were pretty enough, and the chuches, none of which I had time to stop and look at. Nor the wooden village water well I passed either, even if it looked photogenic and ancient.

I had agreed to meet with Richard between half two and three, so after finding the car park for the reserve, I tried to call him, but turned out his phone had no signals. So I tried to make sense of my scrawled directions, with no luck.

I was in the process of calling other friends who had visited, when Richard called back.

He would come and meet me, he confirmed which path to take, so I wandered off and straight away came to a what was clearly an orchid rich area under huge beech trees and deep in leaf litter. Small orchid spikes dotted the woodland floor, and these were the Narrow Lipped Hellebories.

Richard came and showed me the best spikes, the hot weather had fried many of the others, but there were more than enough to snap.

We carried on walking, and came to a clearing where there were a good few Braod Leaved Helleborines, some were partially baked, but still had flowers, and were being visited by drunken wasps.

Time was getting on, so I had to say my goodbyes to Richard and make my way back to the car.

I programmed in the hotel address, and the sat nav guided me west through yet more picturesque and exclusive villages to the A3, then a short blast to the roundabout at Wisley and onto the M25 again, having missed out several busy junctions on my detour.

Almost straight away, the sunny day was shrouded in thick smoke as another heath fire had broken out to the south, so traffic slowed to a crawl through the poor visibility, everything tinged with brown and even the smell of burning made it into the air conditioning.

But at Heathrow, I got through the smoke, and clear blue skies were overhead once more. And through the final jam, I made my way over to the slow lane to take the slip road to the M40 and head north at last.

This isn't the quickest route, but it is less busy, and there is always the delight of seeing dozens of Red Kites hunting on the way.

I made good time, speeding north, past Oxford and Bicester, pressing on towards Birmingham.

Where, I decided I knew better than the sat nav, and rather than take the M6, I went on to go up the toll motorway, which has lighter traffic, only having to cut through a small village to get back onto the M54 west to Telford and Shrewsbury beyond.

I had the radio on, and on Tom Robinson's show, he played all the tracks from The Streets' first album, which amazingly is 20 years old this week. Still sounds as fresh as it did then, and I learned made using free software on a laptop under a blanket in his wardrobe(!) to muffle sounds as he had no studio.

Weak become heroes indeed.

Shrewsbury bypass is all roundabouts, but at six on a Sunday evening traffic is light, so made good time, and at the last one was the sign to Knockin, the village before the hotel.

THe hot and sunny weather had given way to clouds and even showers, it felt and was cooler, yet the car told me it was still 24 degrees outside.

I arrived at the hotel just after seven, Bob gave me a hug and poured me a pint of dark mild.

That went down well.

So downed two more as I ate dinner of chicken Kyiv and chips.

I was suddenly very tired, I said I was going to my room for a lay down, but to give me a knock if he wanted to have a drink later, not thinking he would.

And hour later there was a knock, so I went down and made two Mai Tai's vanish as we chatted and joked.

I climbed back up to my room at half eleven, so very tired.