Saturday 9th March, 2013          1800

A glorious day for riding to town for lunch and doing some shopping. It wasn’t quite so enjoyable for someone else though.

At about one thirty on my way home I was taking the shortcut which passes the fish place near to campus when I saw an obstruction ahead. The shortcut is as I have said before a bumpy narrow dirt track, you can get a car down it (although I wouldn’t because of the wear on the suspension and the fact the low speed you would have to drive at would in fact make it a long cut). It took a second to register what I was seeing - a ballast truck on its side with the rear end resting in the stream running beside the track.

I must have missed the actual event by just a couple of minutes for the driver had managed to clamber up and out of his cab and was standing shaking, smoking a cigarette and talking to a few local farmers who must have rushed to see because they still had their hoes over their shoulders. After stopping and ascertaining he wasn’t hurt I carried on home. I had planned to take Pepsi out to the fish place anyway so I put the meat in the freezer and; before leaving with her got my camera. This was too good not to get a picture!

I hasten to add that I did apologise to the driver for my paparazza behaviour and as it was so warm today (27C) I used body language to ask if he wanted a drink - I would have fetched him a lemonade or a juice from the shop on the bike. He declined and it was only later I realised that by miming drinking with my hands he probably thought I was asking if he was pissed!

I have absolutely no idea what he was doing there in the first place or how he came to get in that situation. It was one of the blue ballast lorries that use the main road all the time and from appearances of what he spilt he was carrying limestone. It certainly turned the stream a milky colour and probably annoyed quite a few fish into the bargain. The track isn’t wide enough to turn a car around in it and the idea he may have skidded at low speed is completely implausible. I therefore think he was trying to take the shortcut, thought better of it (the track gets even narrower further on) and tried to do a thirty point turn - with catastrophic consequences. Quite what he said to his boss on the phone I have no idea but as I left after taking the snaps the guv’nor arrived.

I sat on my bike in the sun having a couple near the fish place and just as I was about to finish and leave the mobile crane arrived and reversed down the track, snapping branches off trees as it did so. Had this been in the UK the police would have blocked the road and turned people back telling them there was nothing to see even though there was. I wanted to watch so I did. In fact I stood at the side of the crane and took more pictures as the recovery progressed. It took just over half an hour from the arrival of the crane for the truck to be back on four wheels - minus cargo, door windows and a side mirror.

Of course I wasn’t laughing but I confess to enjoying a certain schadenfreude at all this. Those blue lorries are some of the biggest culprits at the traffic lights where our south road crosses the main road. If they see a red light they make no attempt to stop (because there are no cameras) and simply blare their horns to say don’t even think about moving on a green light as I am coming through. Once, before I realised they did this, I was very nearly annihilated so you may understand my deriving a modicum of pleasure from the afternoon’s events.

I also took a shot of a rather balding Pepsi although in case anyone thinks I am neglectful I did my best all through the holidays to combat it and she doesn’t have much fur at the best of times. I am taking her out to the campus shops now and hope to remember to get my camera from under the saddle so I can include my pictures with this later.