The Road To H...

Chris Rea composed The Road To Hell whilst driving the M25. The motorway was fairly new then and the song isn’t actually about the road, it’s a metaphor for modern life. It’s about obsession with material things and technological innovation and the way people get themselves into debt in the name of upward mobility. He reflects that when one is shackled with debt and obsessed with consumerism this is not the road to personal freedom.

My family and I don’t travel this road regularly. For us it’s the road to holidays and to home. On a good day it certainly beats battling across London to the South as we used to have to do.

As with all motorways, when it’s bad it’s very bad but we always try to make the best of a bad job. A lorry shed it’s load of fruit conserve all over the M25 causing a jam on the day I took my daughter and her new husband to the airport to start their honeymoon. They missed their flight. An opportunity to push the boat out and travel memorably first class. :)

Today some unfortunate people were involved in an accident and the road was closed for a couple of hours. At first we all sat in our cars as can be seen in my pic. It has often been said that the M25 is the world’s biggest carpark. Soon people ventured out. Sarah was dying for the loo and a kind man opened up his caravan for her. A very fit young guy vaulted a concrete wall once and then again, having noticed our admiration. Another sat on the roof of his car. Two jokers donned a Halloween mask and a multi-coloured wig and got lots of honks from traffic on the other carriageway. People jogged, strolled and chatted. A weird sort of camaraderie prevailed. (I've noticed this phenomenon before.)

It evaporated as soon as we got back behind the wheel. An HGV cut straight into my lane without warning. :(