And I thought RIDING on the roads was bad...

T

Taffyhorse

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... but having nearly been flattened by several maniacs whilst walking Freddie, I have decided that walking on the road with a dog is just as bad!!!

We live in a very rural part of Surrey and the road out the back of my house is very narrow. As walking in the woods this morn resulted in us both covered in mud (its been peeing down all day), I thought i'd walk down the lane and cross over into the Forestry so we could walk on the chalk track and hopefully (haha) not get too muddy prior to going round to our neighbours for dinner this evening...

Jesus!!! Anyone would think this very narrow lane was Brands Hatch!! Several people drove past at speeds over 40mph (which is excessive on this stretch of road) so close I could have reached out and touched them. The road also has ditches either side so there isn't much room to be able to get out the way. Actually I'm starting to think that riding might be the safer option - at least the drivers HAVE to slow down then as they can't get past otherwise, apparently me walking along towing one very unimpressed hound doesn't seem to register!

And another thing - why is it that Freddie will jump into each and every puddle when off the lead and go to a great deal of trouble to ensure that each and every hair is covered in mud and water, and yet on the road, trying to persuade him that tippy toeing through a very SMALL puddle to get to the side of the road and therefore avoid being squashed by the nutter bearing down on us at 45mph is apparently out of the question
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Rant over - and a glass of Rioja if you get this far, I know I need one!
 
Oh it's just horrible
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We have a lovely walk locally but you have to walk on the road to get to it and it's just too scary!
 
I used to walk Leah along the side of a fairly quiet, but fast, road all the time when I was maybe 9 or 10, but I wouldn't have the guts to do that now! Even the main road near me, which has a pavement, is too scary... massive lorries come hurtling past you and Leah cringes against me and tries to dive into the nearest hedge, bless her! I don't know how I managed it when I was little... and also, come to think of it, I don't know why my mum allowed it!
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I have to walk along a very busy B road (bit of a rat run), with no pavements, to get to any of our walks. I always walk the dogs on the inside of me (I walk facing the traffic) and if the weather is even slightly overcast I wear a high viz jacket, but people quite often don't bother to give me any space. To add to the joy the council in their wisdom have recently dug big trenches in the grass verge to drain lying water off the road, so I can't even get on the grass verge in some places.
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I am still horrified!! We do have some really good off road walking straight out of our house but its all woodland and really muddy - hence the venture into the forestry . I sometimes use the forestry route in the week but its normally just after 7am (walking Freddie before I go to work) and the road is generally quiet with little traffic. This was around 4pm in the afternoon so I suppose everyone was racing home.

Note to self though - do not go that way after 8am and after 4pm! What a sad sign of the times though that we now feel unsafe walking our dogs on small country roads due to the lack of consideration shown by other road users. I can remember as a kid hacking my pony down a main A road (we had to use it, was the only way out of the yard!) and traffic slowed down and even crossed to the other side of the road if there was nothing else coming. I just don't know when it got so wrong to be polite and courteous?!?!

Oh well... c'est la vie as they say...
 
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