Narrow roads + Oncoming traffic = Stressed driver: Two Aussie's travel the world

Australia's a big country, that's reasonably common knowledge around the globe I guess. England is comparatively small...Ok, so who are we kidding? In comparison to Australia it's bloody small! I read somewhere that 31 England's can fit into the land mass of Australia which is quite interesting considering England has a population of some seventy million people and Australia has just twenty four million or so. Anyway, this isn't a post about who has a bigger thingy, them or us...It's a post about the English roads! OK OK, I'll get to the point...

The image you see above is my wife, Faith, who is standing in the middle of an English country road. Yes, it's only one lane wide, and a small lane at that! This is not a one way road though, traffic flows in both directions at the same time. Now, you're probably thinking I have found the narrowest road in the country to photograph and that there's this one little road, the only of its kind...You'd be wrong though! These roads are very common and all over the place. I don't know why roads are so narrow here, maybe the fact the country is so old and they were made so long ago. I don't think a farmer would appreciate losing precious farming land to road-widening.

We've been driving around Cornwall, Devon and Somerset county's and once off the A-Road's have been on many B-Road's and unclassified roads like this one also. A-Road's have a single or dual carriageway with a speed limit of 60 and 70 miles respectively and B-Roads a single lane in each direction, (not always with a white line in the middle or wide enough for two cars to pass by). The unclassified roads are even narrower as you can see. To make matters worse there is no verge to either side of the road, no run-off area and no room for error. See in the image how the greenery forms a wall? Well, those walls run for hundreds of miles on either side of the road and behind the wall of foliage is, well, a bloody stone wall; One you definitely do not want to hit. I believe the stone walls started because hundreds of years ago farmers needed somewhere to clear the rocks off the fields and what better place for them than road walls along the dirt tracks and lanes? This is probably why they are so narrow also.

Driving here can be like driving in a tunnel with no roof as the walls to either side close one in and do not leave a lot of vision ahead due to the winding nature of the roads. Passing oncoming traffic is a nightmare too. Once you see an oncoming car, tractor, motor-home, bus or whatever you, (or them), need to pull into a depression in the road/wall to allow them to squeezy by (if possible). Sometimes these depressions are hardly perceptible. Once snugged tight up to the wall, as close into the foliage as possibly without scraping the car on the stone work, both cars creep along in opposite directions trying not to hit each other. It helps if you fold the side mirrors in. Trust me on that one.

The closest I have come is about 2 centimetres between my car and the other; No I am not exaggerating, I had my window down and checked as they squeezed by. On several occasions I've had to back up about 100 metres and into a depressions to let someone by who could not find a depression, or vice versa. Backing up with walls either side, uphill and around a corner from which another car may emerge can be tricky. Trust me on that one too.

Having said all of this the whole process seems to work. Sure it's slow at times and there's more than a little stress as well. But it works.

Today we drove a total 78 mile trip to Dunster Castle and back with 22 miles of that being on a very small B-Road where we had multiple blockages, and foliage brushing the sides of the car as we went. We got there and back safely but it took time and for a couple of Aussie's used to doing 110kph on country roads and hardly ever having to hit the brakes it's an exercise in patience and a test of driving skills!

I can only imagine the chaos it would cause if someone broke down on one of these roads; There would be absolutely no way to get by a broken down vehicle. I don't know how it works, but seemingly it does. Also, attempting to plot a journey around these roads, not using them I mean, is not going to work as they are the access roads to many of England's attractions, towns and of course homes. I followed a guy out of Castle Drogo who was driving a brand new convertible Jaguar F-Type and he had to navigate the same roads I did pushing the Jaguar just as close into the foliage, sticks and branches that I did in my rental Vauxhall Insignia...He didn't seem to mind though. He really had no choice like the rest of us.

Anyway, we're back on the road tomorrow heading to Wells after a two night stay in Bideford. It's mainly A-Roads and Motorway tomorrow with a brief section of minor road to Knightshayes, a Gothic-Victorian mansion we will visit on the way to Glastonbury Tor. Should be an adventure I think.

Thanks for reading and following.

Faith & Galen x