First up trying to get around the M25 was its usual spirit-crushing story of relentlessly slow traffic and grim-faced commuters. But then we were on the M4 and things freed up nicely - ok so we'd gone through the interesting programming on Radio 4 and were stuck with Any Questions which only served to remind me quite how unlistenable Tory politician John Redwood is - but we were rolling. For about two junctions. Somewhere just to the west of Reading where the M4 climbs - and there aren't any junctions for miles - we hit the back of a tailback. And sat there. And sat there. And sat there some more. It took us a whole three hours to crawl from the back of the queue to Membury services. The accident that had reduced the motorway to one lane in both directions involved a truck that had careered through the central reservation and deposited its load of what looked to be truck axles across the carriageway. These were having to be laboriously craned off the prone trailer and the road one at a time. We got through the jam about 10 o'clock and there appeared many more axles left, so God knows what time the recovery services finished.
There's a lesson here about listening to the traffic reports that might be worth heeding in future.