If you could shorten one road to make your caravanning journey shorter.
What road would it be?
For me it would be the M5, we go to Devon every year and love it once we get there, but the 3 hours on the M5 are torture.
------------- Never argue with an Idiot, they drag you down to their level and beat you with experience!!!!
If these roads were not as long as they are they wouldn't reach to where you want to go would they. Also if they were shorter they'd have all the traffic in a much shorter piece of tarmac so it would be jammed all the way as far as it went.
When i was a kid the worst road ever was the A38 there were no motorways then. It would take a day or more to get to cornwall. There were broken down cars all over the place, bonnets raised and steam billowing out. I used to sit in the back of an A35 van surrounded in bedding dehydrating while we were in 200 mile traffic jam. So lets remember that when complaining about the length of roads in Britain :-). I was always told when a kid, the time we leave the house to time we arrive to treat as a holiday. Doing this is less stressful.
------------- A barman is just a pharmacist
with a limited inventory
Yes I went from Bristol to Cornwall (Newquay)in about 1970 I think and it took 13 hours. That was before the M5. I had blisters on my hand from the gear lever from all the stop starts.
The road I'd shorten is our drive from the mansion to the road. It takes 2 hours each way; costs a fortune in petrol for the roller.
living in south Yorkshire, there's nowhere in England, Scotland or wales, we can't reach in a days driving. so I guess we're fortunate in that.
but o.p.'s question ,it has to be m5
stu
Im with Chalkie56, we started to go to Cornwall before the motorways where built and it used to take 2 days to do the 370 miles, Hard to believe now but at certain points of the road, where you would have regular traffic jams,both ways, ice cream sellers would walk down the center of the road selling ices to the people stuck going nowhere for hours.
The trip now takes us 6 hours so for me i dont mind, and the A30 is great compared to the old road.
Chalkie your user name also reminds me of looking for Chalkie White on the Prom at Rhyl, if you found him you would win a prize.
Must be getting old
I'm going back a bit, to the late 40's early 50's. The A1 was the never ending journey for us. Having family in E Sussex it took 2 days to get there and we slept in the layby's. Nowadays you can get anywhere in a day. I'm grateful for that.
Used to travel from the Midland to Cornwall in the 60's before the motorway by following the HR (holiday route) signs through the night.
We would set off at 9.0pm and arrive about midday calling at youth clubs and rugby clubs on the way which served tea and coffee all night at weekends on the route.