19 Sep. - Nomads

Image: Contrails in the early evening sky above Henley-on-Thames

Virgin(s) in the Midlands

The terrain levels, the pasture turns to cropping + the fields grow large - broadscale farming ... no longer hand-worked scale of the north + the fells.

Urban scapes surround the cities, Birmingham + London, + the idiot tourists struggle with the Underground + fall for the Heathrow Express, only to be granted free passage to the Kings Arms by the bus driver.

We get scalped once more on collecting our 'Nomad', then battle the motorway signs, roundabouts + interchanges westward to the placid sanctuary of Henley-on-Thames.

A pint in the local is hard-won through repetition of request (the Australian accent?) + then a simple chicken + bean salad sees us to bed.

Our 'first night' actually 'on the road'.

Notes: Our ride from Shrewsbury to London was via Virgin Trains. Having paid a stupid sum of money for the Heathrow Express, it then sat at the platform for half an hour. The Kings Arms, Longford was our stop nearby the collection depot for the Nomad campervan we'd booked for our next four weeks of travel.