No room at the Inn….
Left home at 7.25am to go to Duxford for today's show (normally 25 minute trip). Spent the next 1½ hours parked at various points on the final mile of the M11(S) hard shoulder approaching the J10/A505 exit.
Once off the M11 and on the approach road to DX, traffic was flowing a bit easier, but by the time I could see the entrance to the "Meadow" car park, they closed it and announced that only way in now was by foot or Park & Ride.
With word that only a limited number of tickets were available through the main visitor entrance, and seeing the P&R buses arriving pretty much crammed to overflowing, I decided to head back home.(Trumpington P&R was declared full/closed on the local radio at about 11.30…)
I will stake out my windbreak against the garden fence, fill it with folding chairs, make myself a watery coffee and watch for anything flying around the local area!
I may strike lucky and catch a glimpse of the 2Lancs returning to base…
As a local I thought you might stand a fighting chance Bob. Shame. Gary pointed me in the direction of the IWM 'warning' about limited tickets so considering the close on 2 hour normal drive and the 5 miles I queued to get into Dunsfold I gave it a miss. Correct call it would seem.
ReplyDeleteAs a "local", I think that was my mistake! Just as well I wasn't due to work!
ReplyDeleteThink the problems are compounded by the approach from the north. Traffic exiting at J10, after crossing the slip road from hard shoulder queue to right lane, was having to merge with the westbound A505 traffic into the one lane to cross the M11, then fight with the traffic coming off from the south. As that queue is better placed to feed straight onto the lanes for the car park, I suspect they were 'barging' their way through rather than obeying the give way rule on roundabouts. Visitors have said they got in no trouble coming up from the south - one was 20 mins ahead of me.
I've sat in queues on the M11 before now, having left home at 11am, and still managed to get into the site and get a ticket on the 'door'.
I suppose I could have persevered and attempted to get to the Trumpington Park&Ride but I suspected that was filling up rapidly. Duxford Primary school was another option if I'd thought about it.
In the end I just felt it was going to be too 'rammed' and headed home (another benefit of being "local" at least!).
As the great Windsor Davies would say, oh dear, how sad, too bad !!
ReplyDeleteHe also used say say "Shoulders Back Lovely boy…"
ReplyDeleteStill got a few days to catch another glimpse of them passing by as they RTB...
I see they sold a record of 17,000 advance tickets for last Sunday.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the spotting anyway, it's a sight to behold!
Good luck and hope you catch a look at them once more.
ReplyDelete