October 2nd 2013

I didn't expect day two of this year in the life of blog to be so eventful. So I am glad I am doing this now. This picture was taken at 8.13am on the M5 between Portishead and Clevedon in Somerset. At 7am unbeknown to me a HGV lorry travelling south had crashed through the central reservation and spewn pallets of paper and more importantly diesel over both carriageways. I joined the queue at 7.15am and although we moved a few feet, by 7.30 the motorway had to shut. I was here until 10am until a police helicopter came over us and informed us the motorway would reopen soon. I was meant to be in a radio studio with Monty Don recording two Shared Planet episodes, but I was late

Two things struck me as I sat in the traffic listening the chaps in the refuse lorry behind me playing poker in the cab.

Firstly, the birdsong. Both carriageways were shut for over 2 hours and with everyone's engines switched off, so the birdsong not normally heard on this part of the motorway was loud and clear. Once the police helicopter informed us by loud hailer to return to our vehicles we all sat there, still in silence. And I listened to the birds trying to remember this moment, how it would have been before the motorway. Eventually one engine fired up and soon all cars were running waiting to move, that moment of tranquillity would never return.

Secondly human psychology. All the cars around me rolled to a halt. We sat engines running. A man next to me got out of his car to stretch his legs and before long everyone was out wandering about (quite an interesting privilege to walk on a motorway in use). People were chatting, smiling, phoning the office and generally being stoical about the situation. Once we began moving, people began behaving in the normal driving way, changing lanes and becoming less tolerant. Interesting, very interesting