motorway – Page 4 – BrownhillsBob's #365daysofbiking

September 5th – A hectic, mad day. I started in Telford, then shot back to Tyseley, then over to Darlaston. I didn’t get many photos, but this lone apple tree intrigued me. Laden with fruit, on the embankment of the motorway at Telford, it is some way off the cycle path that runs beside the M54. Clearly not planted deliberately, as it appears to be the only one. The fruit are growing are untouched, save for bird-pecks. I wondered, idly, if it had grown from the seed in an apple core tossed away by a driver, or perhaps a passing cyclist.

Guerrilla planting of a different, accidental kind.

May 5th – one of the flattest, smoothest stretches of tarmac in the UK. Gorgeous, and lovely to ride, too (I rode the length of it the M6 Toll the night before it opened), mainly because few use this white-elephant toll motorway. Crossing it on Chase Road last night, I counted 4 cars in a ten minute period. At 8pm on a Saturday.

An utterly misguided project, making money hand over fist for it’s operators, who don’t want the cost of maintaining it, so have consequently priced it beyond use. Bizarre.

August 7th – The nights are drawing in and it was already dusk when I returned from a event in Burntwood at 9:05pm. The lights on the M6 toll at Ogley Hay Road made for an impressive scene of hard surfaces and speed.

June 8th – A trip into the Black Country is always a fine excuse to hit the Tame Valley Canal. A lovely, historic run through cuttings and over high aqueducts takes in the best, and the worst, of the area. Today the canal was busy with boats heading north to the Pelsall Canal Festival and a benevolent wind blew me from west to east. Here at Ray Hall, crossing the motorway is always a cause for amusement. Good evening, lemmings…