Got back last night and, well im relieved. Yes I can drive just about anywhere but the Cornish idea of a country lane is tarmac on a bridleway, complete with grass growing up the middle and hedges so high you can only see 5 ft around any given corner.
I love the place, you feel the stress just washing away, but thats until you find out where your staying is down a road that is almost scary, esp when a Range Rover comes hurtling round the bend and expects me in my DAIHATSU to mount the bank, lest he get it muddy. Lets just say my misses demonstrated her displeasure :-)
All that said though, it is a place that small cars do make sense towns and villages are tight, parking spaces small and the increased fuel consumption you get from virtually always either driving up or down hill make a huge amount of sense.
I was amazed at the speed that buses travelled at - I could hardly keep up with some of them and I wasnt crawling along either.
Also, it has to be said, they are in general far more polite than most, perhaps not in so much of a hurry as it takes so long to get anywhere anyway!
I imagine that learning to drive somewhere so challenging would certainly make for better drivers in terms of judgement of gaps and hazard awareness as its all too often your not worrying just about whats infront of you on your side, but what may be coming the other way on your side too!
Lovely holiday though, going back next year, twice! Only downer is the 4 1/2 hour drive home. Could do without that :-)
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Glad you enjoyed it; now you'll know how to drive if you visit West Wales!
As a rule, traffic going DOWN a hill gives way to traffic going UP; if you can't reverse properly don't go on the back lanes AT ALL, and be careful where you take a caravan.
Take every opportunity, on approaching a bend, to look OVER the hedge; can give you fair warning of an approaching tractor or lorry.
You'll have to get used to tractors and lorries on those lanes too, and don't expect them to reverse for you; you've got a rear window, they haven't. Furthermore they'll be either delivering to, or collecting from, a farm so they've every right to be there.
Your first description BTW is NOT of a country lane; locals will recognise this as an "A" road, the "country lanes" have no tarmac at all! ;-)
I do agree though that more people shoud experience these sort of road conditions, but please don't all come at once!
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Having lived in Cornwall for twenty years, I know exactly what you mean! There is no motorway and precious few dual carriageways. Travelling times are therefore much longer. It can take 90 minutes to travel 40 miles and there are few direct routes. I would add however that when I first moved here (from West Mids via Manchester and London) I was disappointed and frustrated by the relatively poor driving I encountered.
Now, either I have got just as bad or have got used to it.
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I really miss the Cornish roads and drivers when I get back to Surrey.
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Glaringly off topic, but presented with an opportunity to moan and being in a bad mood.....
Motorways are no guarantee of speedy progress. It is 90 miles from my house to Wakefield. Had to go there yesterday. 75 of those miles involve motorways. 3 hours 20 minutes.....
:-(
( M6-M62-M60-M62-M1 )
Quite fond of Cornwall.......
Sixty quid to cut the lawn....Pah !
Edited by Humph Backbridge on 20/09/2008 at 19:12
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Three hours from Redruth to Bodmin! I caught up with a couple of push-bikes that had passed me in the traffic after forty miles. Another four hours to Bristol, Cornwall, bah.
>>I was amazed at the speed that buses travelled at
Have you never been to Madeira?
Also on the coast road in northern Majorca I wouldn't have been able to keep up with one if it hadn't kept stopping for pasengers. I could tell how far away it was by the volume of its (frequent use of) air horns!
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Why didn't you just tailgate it bt (at a prudent distance of course)? What were you driving that couldn't keep up with a bus?
It can be a very good idea to hook up behind a vehicle with obvious local knowledge. In my minicab-driving days I used to enjoy leaving the less wary sort of tailgater all crossed up in terminal understeer or underwear crisis at certain corners I knew though. Not many of them would notice the significance of that cloud of petrol vapour coming out of the exhaust during the racing downchange to third before the brake lights blinked. But of course the competent drivers coped well.
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>>Why didn't you just tailgate it bt
You had to be there!
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(Note to self: Google 'Madeira/Majorca bus drivers' and see if any retired rally drivers are named)
Further note: take buses in these places if and when ever prevented from driving by infirmity.
Edited by Lud on 20/09/2008 at 20:56
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Funny you say that about traffic going down should give way - I think its easier to reverse downhill that up, especially if the hill is steep - I had to reverse 1/4 mile which is quite a challenge but a good test nontheless. My car will reverse uphill like any but on certain hills its taxing on the clutch to say the least.
Hedges in Cornwall seem to be a minimum of 10 ft high which in the switchback of bends that makes up Cornish backlanes means you simply have no idea whats coming until its THERE, right on your bonnet.
The saving grace is that locals are used to this and react quickly rather than sitting there wondering what to do.
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Same here in North Wales. A local will quickly reverse to a wide bit if s/he is nearest and will wait for the other to reverse if not. I've unhitched a few caravans and pushed them back when the tower had not a clue how to reverse.
When driving a bus I've used the 'bring out a newspaper and start to read it' ploy with good effect
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I well remember my 1st visit to Cornwall in the early 80's ...I was a speed merchant back then in my P6 V8 with SD1 heads (hehe!) we stayed in a caravan down on the Lizard near Mullion and I'll never forget the long long narrow lane that led down to the the caravan site, and those high high hedges, at least you stu are used to rural - I was fresh from the Old Kent Rd. in South London!
Having lived down here for 11 years now, I think nothing of it, plus the fact I've joined the mimser pride assoc. inc.
We use to live in a place called Warleggan, high up on the Bodmin moor and Ladydog said she'd never be able to drive up the *very* steep lane that leads to said Hamlet, but = she did it 5 days a week for 6.5 years in an armoured car (V 244 GLT)
One thing that does annoy me about those damn hedges is they hide some fantastic views in places, but they stop any drifting snow and ya can always pull into a farmfield entrance & "take it all in"
Dog.
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What I especially love about certain places by the sea in Cornwall is the way you seem to drop down from the hills and suddenly a place appears from what seems to be nowhere, I noticed this especially with Looe, Polperro and Boscastle.
Also of note is that there is little insistance on using public transport down there as car parks are plentiful, even at smaller places of interest. I guess you could call the little buses at Polperro a park and ride scheme but its such a lovely walk down from the car park, seems such a waste to spend it on a converted milkfloat!
Oh and nobody seems to have a clean car out there, nor a scratch free one. It is however a haven for older cars by the looks of it, plenty of 80's bangers still going, remarkable given the level of work they do up the hills.
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One thing that does annoy me about those damn hedges is they hide some fantastic views >>
Last time I was in Devon - if one can mention such a place on a Cornish thread - I thought the banks beside the lanes were rather overgrown.
I'm sure the county council used to trim them back harder than they do now.
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I'm sure the county council used to trim them back harder than they do now.
Not sure about Devon/Cornwall, but in my part of Wales the job tends to be done by farmers or contractors. There are also restrictions on when they can be cut.
I personally think it's more to do with the advent of mechanical flails, which remove the small stuff but leave the bigger branches. This means that the base of the hedge gets thicker with time, and encroaches more on the road. If the hedge is "laid" the problem disappears for a few years, but it's costly and time-consuming, although the results look superb.
Incidentally, in the days when when steam engines hauled our trains, most hedges and embankments along the line were far better kept than they are today; not just because they had the manpower, but because of the risk of fire.
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Harleyman,
Flails theory could well be right.
I also wondered about poorly thought out attempts to preserve wildlife
I say poorly thought out because I'm sure there were more birds around 30/40 years ago.
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Funny you say that about traffic going down should give way - I think its easier to reverse downhill that up especially if the hill is steep - I had to reverse 1/4 mile which is quite a challenge but a good test nontheless. My car will reverse uphill like any but on certain hills its taxing on the clutch to say the least.
With a car it is, Stu; with a lorry it's not quite as easy, as they're rear-wheel drive.
One observation I have made; whilst the locals round here can normally reverse quite easily on a tight lane, the skills seem to desert them the moment they get into Tesco's car park!
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I watched a full sized Somerfield lorry reverse down Looe high st - that was a true demonstartion of skill, not just the narrowness, but the fact that traffic kept coming inspite of it and tourists walked behind it without even looking would certainly require some nerve!
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Seem to remember putting the car on a kind of raft thing to get across an estuary somewhere in Cornwall. Might have been Fowey ? Long time ago.
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King Harry car ferry?
Falmouth to St Mawes (or thereabouts).
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Cremyll or Saltash ferry in Plymouth? Both went to Cornwwall, the Cremyll one hauling itself across with chains, Saltash one a proper ship with two propellers at least, able to go in either direction at equal speed. I think there's a road bridge now next to the Brunel Saltash railway bridge a mile or so away under my window when I were a nipper in those parts around 1953 or 4...
Edited by Lud on 21/09/2008 at 00:48
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Somewhere close to Fowey is a good shout I think. There s a chain driven ferry there, or thereabouts.
I watched the Red Devils over Fowey harbour one year. I was high on a hillside, and you could see that during what would look like a really dangerous stunt from the ground (e.g. a crossover) the planes were vertically actually quite a good distance apart. Still didn't spoilt the enjoyment though.
I really must go back to Cornwall sometime - it's a very nice area.
Edited by smokie on 21/09/2008 at 01:58
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Ya can find some ansome little coves "far from the madding crowd" by using google maps & even suss out where to park!
For the "keen of eye" you can even see the birds on the beach - I swear I saw a Gullemot t'other day :)
Dog.
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Don't squeeze into the side of the lanes, make people slow down (or stop), to get past without hedging it or bashing off mirrors. This goes for any narrow road, really, not just in Cornwall.
Follow the line of the road by looking at telegraph poles, the tops of hedges, houses, etc., glancing through gaps.
Don't go too fast! Look out for loony visitors, and demented digger drivers.
Quite right about giving way to traffic coming uphill. It used to be because some cars had a lower reverse than first, ISTR - and, of course, in the old days, some cars would only go up very steep hills backwards.
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The chain ferry is at Fowey, going across to Polruan.
My Daihatsu's reverse seems to be somewhere between 1st and 2nd in terms of ratio, certainly steep hills easier to start off in first than reverse ( had to do the same hill in each over the course of the holiday! ).
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That's the one Stu. Still there is it ?
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Sure is still there, its a long way round if you dont take the ferry such is the nature of the landscape.
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I'd say that it's not just the tourist areas that drivers develop the spacial awareness of being able to chuck a car into the narrowest gap between another car and the hedge. I learnt in Berkshire, but out to the western end so a much more rural area (the lane near me had a milk float and coach wedged for a couple of hours once when they couldn't decide who was giving way to whom!)
I now transfer those skills to driving in the lakes or in town... you can squeeze in between some small spaces when trying to get down between lights.
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Just back ourselves from 3 nights on the Dorset/Devon border and 4 at lovely Talland Bay, between Looe and Polperro. We managed to choose the only dry week of the year so far - took the Z3 and it didn't miss a beat. Hood down most of the time - great. Interesting common ground between the Z3 and Stu's Daihatsu - reverse is definitely a higher ratio than first, which I would have thought was unusual.
I agree with most of what's been said about driving in Cornwall: we didn't see any bad manners or suicidal driving on narrow lanes. Most people back up when they know there's a passing place just behind them. People keep their cars for longer in the country, and don't buy a new car to impress the neighbours. Our Y-registered Z3 was one of the newer cars down there, unlike in this part of Berkshire.
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Small world, I was at Kilminorth, was planning to visit Talland but didnt find the time in the end.
Did you happen to spot the VW Phaeton parked in the car park at Looe everyday in the disabled space? It didnt fit at either end of the space, lovely car though :-)
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Went to devon in June this year, week in a farm near modbury. I had to reverse UPHILL for 3/4 mile at speed becuase an ambulance with twos and blues came the other way to get to a farm on the "lane" I had neck ache for hours afterwards
As conrwall - a devon lane is two thin strips of tarmac between two 10 foot high hedges, with a line of 3 foot weeds between the strips
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its no real suprise you see few cars bigger than an Astra, nor do you see many shiny high end german stuff either - it would be trashed so quickly either in car parks or down the lanes. Funny how in more extreme parts of the country, peoples buying habits vary.
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The lack of expensive cars may be down to the fact that Cornwall is one of the lowest income, most deprived areas in Europe. Since the last tin mines closed tourism and china clay are prett much the only industries.
It's perhaps not so noticeable because it is pretty, has very high property prices (due to rich people buying second homes there), and in the summer there's a huge influx of wealthy home counties types in expensive cars.
But there are few jobs there; it's a nice place to holiday in or retire to, but perhaps not so nice to bring up a family in.
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3 years ago I was driving in Devon and Cornwall [ my old stamping ground from the 1960's ] in a LHD Pug 307. Came face to face with a gentleman who was not going to stop, but knew exactly the width of his car. Unfortunately, he forgot that the mirrors are slightly wider. Even though I was brushing the bank on my side, he barrelled through with a resounding bang as the mirrors collided. Fortunately, the Pug's mirror just sprang back and rebounded without damage. I assume that the other party did this regularly, as he made no effort to stop and ascertain if anything was damaged.
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Came face to face with a gentleman who was not going to stop but knew exactly the width of his car. Unfortunately he forgot that the mirrors are slightly wider. Even though I was brushing the bank on my side he barrelled through with a resounding bang as the mirrors collided.
That's why it's a good idea to slow things down, by squeezing into the hedge to allow this sort of thing. Works well on all roads, not just in Cornwall.
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Please read "by *not* squeezing into the hedge!
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>>>but perhaps not so nice to bring up a family in. <<<
Absolutely comrade pyruse - I've even heard tell that the Cornish eat babies as well, and I won't even mention The Beast Of Bodmin ... at least the lanes are starting to become quiet again - now that you lot have disappeared for another year!
Dog.
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at least the lanes are starting to become quiet again
I perhaps like Cornwall best in the Spring - all the foxgloves on the hedges, primroses, that sort of thing... hello sky, hello clouds, etc. - also before all the visitors arrive, and fewer parking restrictions!
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Ah! A man after my own heart ... April is the best time for a riot of colour upon the hedges, and don't forget those little pink things - (Celandine)
Anyone down here @ the mo (like my sister from London) is getting some luvly weather!
CornishCockney.
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April is the best time for a riot of colour upon the hedges and don't forget those little pink things - (Celandine)
What? What pink things? Primroses? Dog roses (but they're later!)?
images.google.co.uk/images?hl=en&q=celandine&gbv=2 by the way.
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You must forgive me FT, coming from a 4th floor flat in south london, the only flower I was familiar with was the dandy lion!
The pink thing I was thinking of is the red campion ~ www.floralimages.co.uk/psilendioic.htm
Violets appear about the same thyme I believe.
Dogstar.
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