Spring Bank Holiday
We’ve just returned from Chertsey, Surrey, where we camped at a campsite that was a quarter of a mile from the M3 and simultaneously in the Heathrow flightpath.
Despite these two (three, if you count camping just outside a town) apparent disadvantages, we had a great weekend. Amanda and Matt Bartlett stayed with us in our sort-of-futureproof six-man dome tent, but unfortunately ended up in the inner-tent whose hooks (they hold up the inner-tent by attaching to the inside of the fly-sheet) were a bit stretched and therefore kept pinging off in the middle of the night. Never mind. By his own admission, Matt isn’t keen on camping, but we bought two sheets of two-inch foam which made the beds much more comfortable than they would otherwise have been.
What amazed all of us was the sheer amount of wildlife on the campsite: foxes, squirrels, rabbits, ducks (they waddled right up to the tent, so we felt obliged to feed them). The M25 is such an artificial barrier that its naturelessness seems to apply to the area that it encircles. It doesn’t, of course (and being right by the River Thames helped), but it’s interesting how our perception of urban areas is coloured by seeing them from the confines of a car. Of course animals and plants still live and thrive in urban areas (right next to the motorway as well) — it’s just that we rarely see them.
So, while the idea of camping within the circumference of the M25 didn’t appeal at first, it’s been an eye-opener…
Listening: Rae and Christian — It Aint Nothing Like (Featuring the Pharcyde)