This hasn't been a particularly long trip as trips go but I've still managed to clock up close to a thousand miles so far since I left home one week and three hours ago. I'm lucky that I enjoy driving and I have a car, The Nighthawk, that eats up long-distance cruising miles with glee. In fact it is one of the most comfortble cruising cars I've owned. Actually last Tuesday after our trip across The Minch in a fairly stiff gale Marcel du Marche drove most of the way to Fife where he lives and where I stayed the first night of my present travels.
The one thing I do not enjoy about driving now though is the traffic in the UK and in cities generally. These photos were not even from the city although the traffic was exacerbated by an accident.
But my saviour these days is my trusty satnav. If I were to be asked what the biggest aid to travel by car is these days I am fairly sure that my answer would be satelite navigation. In the days before satnav it was a case of writing a lengthy set of notes and pinning them to the dashboard and trying to read them as one was driving. If there is a passenger to map-read that's fine but I've spent many years travelling on my own. Most of that has been spent travelling to and from Merseyside to Lewis so I've not needed a map nor help. But now as I travel to friends in continental Europe and places in the UK I do not know then my lack of ability to retain images in my mind is a problem for navigation. But with satnav I can go anywhere without worrying. Yes. I love my satnav.
yep agree, satnav is fantastic...
ReplyDeleteLooks like traffic in UK has increased a bit since the 70s. ;) Of course I know it must have (like everywhere else´)... It's just that I haven't been back to Britain since then and I still have my mind full of images how it looked back in those days (and we ususally did not choose the most crowded roads either...)
ReplyDeleteWe were talking about traffic at work today. It amazes me that Whangarei a small city with just over 50,000 population can have traffic buildups - I wouldn't go as far as calling them traffic jams (although those who have to face the traffic during peak hours each day do). I'm lucky, the only time I'm held up on the road is if there has been an accident or there are road works. Hope there aren't too many hold ups like this on your journey home! Fair winds!
ReplyDeleteI get anxious just looking at these photos of that traffic and to think of driving on the opposite side of the road, as well. That would ALL be new and not so comfortable for me.
ReplyDeleteFriends would laugh if I showed them what the traffic looks like in our biggest city of Vermont....