We hit the ground (Wifey don’t like that expression) at Heathrow on Sat’ 27th of June at about 3.30 pm and will drive a hire car around to Orpington. So far, so good. On 21/7 we leave Welwyn Garden City fairly early (about 6.00 am and head off up the A1- A68 to Corbridge, have a look round, B&B there, then off to Fort William via A69 - M74 - A82. We do a few days around the Highlands then on the following Sat’ we head off back down to Cannock via the M6.
What I want to know is, is there anything I should know about the state of the traffic, roads, etc. Any help is appreciated and just to show that I really mean it, I’ll have a beer for every post I get that’s helfpul.
Generally the busiest times on UK roads are 7 to 930am & 4 to 630pm
Quietest time seems to be 11am to 2pm and at night but watch out for major road lane closures at night due to maintenence.
If going anywhere near the M25 at any time - leave early it is likely to take longer than you planned 
I’ll use M25 for H/row to Orpington on Sat’ afternoon. Again from Orpington to A1 for Welwyn. Apart from that I’ll try and stay away from it. Any prob’s likely on A1 M ?
peterm:
We hit the ground (Wifey don’t like that expression) at Heathrow on Sat’ 27th of June at about 3.30 pm On 21/7 we leave Welwyn Garden City fairly early
Just wondered what the hell you will do in Orpington for almost 4 weeks 
the A1 is good, most of the roundabouts have now gone, ther’s only biggleswade, sandy, buckdon, stamford, colsterworth and markham moor left from WGC all the way to the A68
So it sounds like we’ve got no problems with the A1 then (I ended up on one of those roundabouts many years ago on a foggy night, nearly ■■■■ meself 
) We’re not hanging around Orpington all that time (perish the thought). We have a week doing the rounds of relatives, then we’re off to Chirk to pick up a narrow boat for a week, then days out here and there until we meet a couple of mates at WGC and off to Scotland on the 21st. After that, another week flitting about, then down to Mullion and Polperro, hopefully for a bit of sunshine. I s’pose the trip from WGC to Chirk won’t present any problems ? I forgot to mention that bit earlier… old timers disease setting in.
Well, we’re back in Oz. Thoroughly enjoyed ourselves over there and didn’t have anywhere near as much hassle on the roads as we expected (except for some of them bloody foreigners). We had a week in and around Fort William and Kyle of Loch Ailsh, where the weather was unbelievably hot and humid. Locals were complaining about it, but we didn’t mind too much 
We went down to Cornwall, where it pee’d down all week, but you can’t win 'em all eh.
The narrow boat in North Wales was a great week, weather was a bit iffy, but quite good on the whole. We found a pie shop/delicatessen in Ellesmere called Vermuillens: if I’d had my way, I wouldn’t have fitted through the door when I’d finished. Some of the best stuff around.
All in all, I can’t wait to do it again. The only thing I found irritating really, was the trucks being limited to 56. What’s wrong, don’t they trust you to go faster. If the trucks could do 70 on the motorways, etc, I reckon it’d be better for everbody.
Just my thoughts on the subject, what do others think ?
G’day
glad to hear you had a good time - can’t go wrong with Scotland and Cornwall IMO. Nice someone from Oz can give me a good tip for a pie shop just down the road from where I live 
I’d change the speed limit for trucks any day, it just seems to cause more congestion and aggravation. Perhaps the government sneakily thought that if the trucks went slower, the cars would as well, but the trucks would get the blame.