A Day On The M1

AN ORCHARD, A TOWN AND BAD TRAFFIC

I was driving on the M1, one of England's notorious motorways and, as it's not too uncommon, a number of speeding cars with sirens zoomed past me. They must have been going at nearly 100 mph. I was doing nearly 70, and the flashed right past me. Moments later, three police cars did the same thing, sirens blaring. The first cars were unmarked.

"Uh-ho", I thought to myself, "that doesn't look good."

It wasn't good. Now, even till now, I have no idea what "it" was, but it was bad. Before long my care came to a stand-still on the motorway and my sat-nav casually added an hour to my journey. Sigh.

About half an hour after that I had the opportunity to exit the M1 into the outskirts of Milton Keynes. I took the opportunity and found a village to park my car in. I parked on the streets with no markings and hoped there wasn't some kind of rule I didn't know about. I guess I'll find out by next week, which is usually how long it takes for the letter to arrive through the post stating that I've contravened one rule or the other.

I decided to just wait the issue out explore the area and, if needs be, even have dinner at a local pub or whatever. I was just fed up of the alternative and my knees hurt and didn't feel like having the clutch partially depressed for hours.

I found this path along the M1 with fruit trees on either side. It looked like some kind of randomly planted trees but now, in hind sight, I think it may have just been planted that way. A kind of freestyle orchard if you may. I spotted apples and some berries that I recognised. Apart from that, I had no idea what some of the other fruits were. I was convinced they were all poisonous.

It did make me think of the abundance of food on this planet and, if things are done right, not a single soul should go hungry. Here we have food just growing wild and free on the edge of a motorway.

Then I saw one of those new estates planted all over the country near big cities. This one particularly serves Milton Keynes and would be a perfect area to decongest too from the main city itself which has grown quite large. Also all the people working in the gigantic warehouses in the area need somewhere to live. This one looked like the size of a small town - much bigger than the village I parked in. I could see from the rooftops that there was something resembling a school. I suppose that makes sense. I could also see a couple of large parks, including a waterway which could have easily been a tributary of a river, but was probably totally artificial. No town is complete without a shopping/industrial complex and this was no exception.

I spent a good while there but didn't have dinner. I wasn't hungry. The sun had set and the light was vanishing fast so I decided to get back on the road. By the time I hit the M1, whatever it was had been cleared up. The rest of the drive home was a pleasant and uneventful one - even with the odd slow movement. That's characteristic of British roads.

Peace & Love,

Adé