What makes a great driving road? The sinewy rise and fall of asphalt isn鈥檛 enough by itself. A good driving road will take you between places, between worlds, and offer an escape from the grind of the everyday. The scenery should make you want to slow down rather than speed up, and a good companion in the shape of your car should match your mood, too. Happily the Volkswagen e-Golf adds the serenity and calmness of electric power to the core brilliance of the Golf family, making it a perfect partner. The effortless performance and near-silent running means you鈥檒l be free to enjoy the scenery more than ever before. The A417 is as functional as dual carriageways get, despite the rolling Cotswold countryside it pierces, so it鈥檚 a delight to discover that just a few turns from the main drag deposit you at the beginning of a best-kept secret. The B4425 begins innocently enough on the fringes of Cirencester and arrows north-west out of Gloucestershire, luring you into thinking it is just another country road.
Escape the clutches of souvenirs and tea rooms, and you are rewarded with a change of tack once again as the B4425 spears onwards, aiming at the Oxford-bound A40 towards another village of iconic Englishness: Burford. As it nears its conclusion, the road becomes ever-more direct with long, rolling straights that the e-Golf whisks along smoothly and silently, climbing the hills with ease and feeling at home in the tranquility of the countryside. It鈥檚 good enough to warrant a stop for tea before a return journey. Out here in the depths of the Forest of Dean, it only takes a little imagination to believe you have jumped back in time to pre-civilisation where nature has free rein. Passing through the junction marking the village of Cannop, the scenery begins to level out. Cannop Ponds offers a chance to stretch your legs and enjoy the beauty of its nature reserve, just one of many signposted country parks and sites of natural or historical interest.
Without warning, the B4225 begins to rise, twisting and climbing as you approach Speech House, originally a hunting lodge built for Charles II in the late 1600s before becoming the administrative building for the area. Today it is a hotel, making a perfect stopping point before pressing on. Beyond Speech House the forest becomes thinner, allowing you to see deeper within and begin to appreciate not only its sheer size but also the diversity of the sights it offers. The e-Golf is the perfect companion for a road like this, a shot of instant torque to breeze past slow-moving farm machinery and a steady, frugal and near-silent cruise with a tranquility matching the surroundings. Past the arboretum, Speech House Road brings you gently into the outskirts of Buckshaft, but even having covered several miles with ease you feel like you鈥檝e barely scratched the surface; there is so much more to discover.
Any sat-nav worth the solder in its circuit board would push you along the M61 before turning east along the M65 to get you from Bolton to Blackburn. But a more pleasing way to make the same journey allows you to savour the pleasures as Greater Manchester becomes Lancashire. Although the more modern A666 will get the job done more quickly, the A675 - the old Bolton to Preston road - takes you across the West Pennine Moors. They cannot claim the stature or possibly the status afforded to the main Pennine ranges, but they are all the more delightful for that. As you leave Bolton from the north, the left fork signposted Belmont suggests nothing more lies beyond it than a lesser route out of the town. You travel a good half a mile, a gentle inclination all the way, before the houses start to thin out and you catch the first glimpse of the view across the moors.
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