Our Surrey sojourn ends today so the weather’s decided to change. We were greeted by clear skies and sunshine this morning although we were actually woken up by a bat! Somehow one of the little critters had got into the barn, waking Dawn up by crashing into a window blind as it flew up and down the room. I had to get up, open the door and wait for it to find its way out before deciding it wasn’t worth going back to bed and fired up the laptop to edit all the rail pictures I took in Guildford yesterday. The town’s a busy junction on the main line to Portsmouth. There’s two lines to London (one via Epsom) plus regular services to Reading, Redhill, Ascot and Haselmere as well as a daily Arriva Cross-Country service to/from Newcastle upon Tyne. Here’s a sample of what will appear on my Zenfolio website this evening.

450548 threads its way through the complex trackwork at the entrance to Guildford station yesterday

We’ll be driving back later this morning so I’ll write a rolling blog of the journey. Looking at the weather forecast it seems we’ll be leaving the sunshine behind in the South and heading into heavy rain back home, which means it might be an ‘interesting’ trip.

Before we left we had to pop in and say goodbye to someone. Regular readers of this blog will know that my sister-in-law Jo Platt lost her long battle with cancer last December. Jo’s buried in the churchyard in Tilford.

12.06

The good weather didn’t last. By the time we’d reached the M4 we were back in low cloud and rain. Soon we were engulfed in spray as we negotiated the roadworks for the few miles we were on the motorway.

The situation wasn’t much better on the Northbound A34. There’s a lot of water on the road. What there’s also a lot of is dead badgers. We saw over half a dozen on our way up the A34 and A43.

14.01.

We’re currently taking a break at Watford Gap services. The place is packed with cars and lorries on the Northbound side, plus this visitor which took me completely by surprise. Luckily, Dawn saw it arrive.

15.48.

We’ve just pulled off the M1 at jn 35a. It’s good to be off the motorway. It’s been very busy and the road conditions have put a strain on Dawn due to the heavy showers, spray and motorway muppets needed her full attention.

Looking at the lumpen skies we’re in for more heavy rain yet.