Shadowfax's Big Day Out
Shadowfax was transport of choice for an appointment in Camden Town today. It's the first time I've ridden through London and I wasn't sure what the filtering would be like. In the event it was difficult. We trundled up the A3 past the tunnel works at Devils Couldron and onto the M25 for M4 and an A4 entry; it seemed the thing to do and proved pretty timely compared to the boredom of a full on M3 assault. It wasn't easy to get through the queues at the M4/A4 interchange as the road narrows up, then there are the ubiquitous road works, and more in toward Piccadilly. Around that time I was concerned I'd make my meeting but once on Shaftsbury Avenue things hotted up. A Street View recce in Google Maps gave me an idea of my turn in to Lion Square and we seemed to ride on instinct because of such good intel.
I had feared spending an hour searching for a free motorcycle parking bay but I ended up with a choice. It was stupidly on a one-way crescent around the square's park so being overly fussy would be penalised by a 1-mile detour to get back to the bays. Parked up, I had an hour to spare. Excellent. The return trip included picking up the UK Southern Region Tag from the London eye. It's been there since Peter of Exeter dropped it off from Popham. It needed lifting. I couldn't get on the Embankment for a like-for-like photo but managed to wrangle my way around Waterloo to the Eye it's self. Stopping for a photo isn't easy: red double lines fill the streets and the traffic density keeps you moving. I slipped in behind an illegally parking car of young Asians who immediately assumed I was photographing evidence. I'm not sure they understood my laughing at the idea but I moved them on, I think. Then out via Westminster, Victoria, and almost Chelsea (!!!?) before checking the maps in Google and finding a fully chokka A4 and a long hot ride cooking in Shadowfax's cooling fan draught (er...the hot air expelled from the engine onto my legs - not cool air like aircon, which would have been a joy!) Survived. .
I had feared spending an hour searching for a free motorcycle parking bay but I ended up with a choice. It was stupidly on a one-way crescent around the square's park so being overly fussy would be penalised by a 1-mile detour to get back to the bays. Parked up, I had an hour to spare. Excellent. The return trip included picking up the UK Southern Region Tag from the London eye. It's been there since Peter of Exeter dropped it off from Popham. It needed lifting. I couldn't get on the Embankment for a like-for-like photo but managed to wrangle my way around Waterloo to the Eye it's self. Stopping for a photo isn't easy: red double lines fill the streets and the traffic density keeps you moving. I slipped in behind an illegally parking car of young Asians who immediately assumed I was photographing evidence. I'm not sure they understood my laughing at the idea but I moved them on, I think. Then out via Westminster, Victoria, and almost Chelsea (!!!?) before checking the maps in Google and finding a fully chokka A4 and a long hot ride cooking in Shadowfax's cooling fan draught (er...the hot air expelled from the engine onto my legs - not cool air like aircon, which would have been a joy!) Survived. .
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