The consequence of delving
Those of you who pay close attention to Civil Engineering news ( and I know that is probably most of you ) will be well aware that the Hindhead Tunnel, the longest road tunnel in Britain, has recently opened.
I live in Hindhead, very close to the old route of the A3 so this has a big effect on me. The tunnel works were in progress when we moved to the house I'm living in now, so there have always been roadworks on the way home from the ponies. The Devils Punchbowl, the large National Trust owned valley I live beside, has alway been permeated by the sound of cars passing up and down the road. I remember the long sweep of the A3 there going back to a very early age - indeed it was there that the family car caught fire once when I was about five - and the valley will be very different without it.
I won't miss it - the views as you drove down the hillside were pretty but you barely noticed them after a while but the traffic lights and the drop from dual to single carriageway at the hilltop made it routinely slow - especially as people tended to break down on the hill, the noise from the road was inescapable on the punchbowl and for as long as I can remember it has been too busy to safely cross on horseback, meaning that there was no way to use the bridleways that crossed it and the forests and commons on the far side of the road were quite closed to us.
That is no longer the case. The road itself is being partially returned to nature- the tarmac will be broken up and sand from the tunnel used to return the landscape to something like it's pre-road shape. With that in mind last weekend was one of the only chances to walk on the old road and a lot of people decided to do just that.
Of course, some idiot always has to bring a horse...
Zorro was a total star - with loads of families out on the old road there was a real party atmosphere there and lots of children excited to see the horsey. Zorro was amazingly patient with them, considering that he is Zorro, and didn't bite or trample anybody. All in all he made himself a tremendous ambassador for whatever breed of horse he is.
On the way home, beyond the part I filmed, there is a broad sandy track. As we reached that Zorro and I hit an unspoken accord with regard to our speed and he broke into the fastest canter he's ever offered me, really free and forwardgoing in the evening sun. He really is a truly magnificent cob.
I live in Hindhead, very close to the old route of the A3 so this has a big effect on me. The tunnel works were in progress when we moved to the house I'm living in now, so there have always been roadworks on the way home from the ponies. The Devils Punchbowl, the large National Trust owned valley I live beside, has alway been permeated by the sound of cars passing up and down the road. I remember the long sweep of the A3 there going back to a very early age - indeed it was there that the family car caught fire once when I was about five - and the valley will be very different without it.
I won't miss it - the views as you drove down the hillside were pretty but you barely noticed them after a while but the traffic lights and the drop from dual to single carriageway at the hilltop made it routinely slow - especially as people tended to break down on the hill, the noise from the road was inescapable on the punchbowl and for as long as I can remember it has been too busy to safely cross on horseback, meaning that there was no way to use the bridleways that crossed it and the forests and commons on the far side of the road were quite closed to us.
That is no longer the case. The road itself is being partially returned to nature- the tarmac will be broken up and sand from the tunnel used to return the landscape to something like it's pre-road shape. With that in mind last weekend was one of the only chances to walk on the old road and a lot of people decided to do just that.
Of course, some idiot always has to bring a horse...
Click to viewZorro was a total star - with loads of families out on the old road there was a real party atmosphere there and lots of children excited to see the horsey. Zorro was amazingly patient with them, considering that he is Zorro, and didn't bite or trample anybody. All in all he made himself a tremendous ambassador for whatever breed of horse he is.
On the way home, beyond the part I filmed, there is a broad sandy track. As we reached that Zorro and I hit an unspoken accord with regard to our speed and he broke into the fastest canter he's ever offered me, really free and forwardgoing in the evening sun. He really is a truly magnificent cob.