Travellers

Every year, loads of caravans belonging to travellers camp up by Devil's Bridge en route to the Appleby Horse Fair. These caravan's fall into two categories: modern caravans (the ones that turn over on motorways and bring the traffic to a halt) and the old fashioned wooden ones. I dislike the former but love the latter.

Over the last week it's occurred to me a few times to go down and take some photos of the caravans but it feels a bit intrusive. (I would, it must be said, make a crap street photographer: I'm at best comfortable taking photos of people I don't know when they're facing the other way.)

Anyway, this week it's a battle to fit all my exercise in, mainly because I'm in London for the next two days, so I left work at four o'clock, today, and whizzed across to Whoop Hall for a swim. As I drove along the A65 I was confronted by the sight of this caravan coming the other way, with a huge column of traffic behind it. On this straight section of road, the front of the column was dissolving as cars raced to get past the caravan.

Once I'd turned into Whoop Hall, I pulled over and whipped out my camera. I needn't have worried about offending anyone by taking their photo, though; the drivers smiled at me and I even got a wave!