"Nothing but the rain"
I broke a cardinal rule today. Car windscreen wipers should ALWAYS be left at the “off” position when the car is turned off. I didn’t do that today!
The only time it is ok to keep the wipers in an “on” position is if you are driving a Le Mans prototype car or similar endurance car.
When ww and I talk about routes for walking the dog we give names to parts of local footpaths so we can say the name rather than give a six figure grid reference. Here’s a snip of Google Earth with some arrows pointing at vague features.
A – Sports Field
B – Across middle field
C – George Corner (it’s where our dog did his first “on walk” poo)
D – Bushy Bushey Wood
E – Solar Farm Path
F – Rotary Hill
G – Cock Corner (there’s a graffiti picture of a penis)
H – Burham Route Road Return
I – Burham Route Field Return
J – Burham Route Path
K – School Path
L – Middle Vineyard
M – Vineyard Hill
N – Sheep Path
O – Aylesford Corner
P – George Gate (The dog once ran so fast he couldn’t stop at the gate and hit it hard)
Q – Pylon
R – Stake Corner
I’ve missed an arrow by I and J and this is called Burham Route Near Stream.
So there you have it. A list of terms used in a single household about the local area that is of no use to anyone!
The best and most fun car I think I ever drove is the Toyota Land Cruiser FJ60 (Australia edition). I spent a glorious weekend driving around Fraser Island off the east coast of Australia with Pom, Mel and ww.
This truck definitely wasn’t the newest on the island. There was gaffer tape holding up the passenger windows and broken bits all over it. There were loads of newer Toyotas and other 4x4s racing the fishermen to the best sports areas but I’m glad we had this one. It made us feel like we were really getting into the wilderness. Also, it made us rather relaxed about getting it dirty.
Pom and I took it in turns to drive over the world’s largest sand island. It’s a place where there is an 80kph speed limit on the main highway (or beach as we would call it) and you just have to go slower inland. Where in the world do you have to check the tides before you can drive the highway?
We had a couple of close shaves! We entered some soft sand within the first hour of being on the island and the truck slowed but didn’t quite stop and we continued on. From then it was rather uneventful apart from placing the bottles of wine in towels so they didn’t break as we went over the bumps and they jumped about in the boot. This truck was a hoot to drive.
On the way back to the mainland we had a bit of an issue with a large wave that spread water up the beach and over the highway. I swear we were close to turning over! The truck lurched sideways and bounced around a lot. It was very exciting. On the ferry back to the mainland lots of people were laughing at just how dirty our truck was. It proved we had a great time.
Once back on the main land I drove along the beach (why use tarmac?) and we tried to find somewhere to rejoin the main road. Someway along the beach we came to a blockage. A tree had fallen over and there were two choices. Drive into the sea and hope or turn around and go back the way we came. I just drove straight on into the sea. We probably went about a foot deep and then with luck on our side we managed to get out the other side and keep driving. It was hilarious at the time although later that night we would whistle about it!
Here’s a glorious shot of the Toyota:
I want one.