Mad, bad and dangerous to know
Posted by Rob Bright at 5:00PM on Tuesday 24 June, 2008 11 Comments
I've just spent a few days driving on the coast roads along Amalfi in southern Italy.
If you've not been to this part of Europe before, it features a landscape of mythical grandeur, the Mediterranean Sea winking under an ultramarine sky, the scent of hibiscus and camomile wafting on the breeze, rustic hill towns littered with crumbling stucco.
It's like the Romans' idea of heaven, Elysium, the only drawback being there's the prospect of visiting it on every bend.
You see, the thing you have to understand about Italians is that they drive like children coming up on a sugar rush. Some people say it reflects their natural exuberance, that it's part of the charm of the Italians.
This makes sense only from the position of having survived the ordeal. Reflecting on the experience with a stiff drink in your hand, you can shake your head, laugh and say 'those crazy Italians and their quirky driving'. At the time, though, you'll think they're selfish, reckless and ripe for a good kicking.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed it. It made me think of the quote that goes something like 'Every man thinks a bit less of himself for never having experienced battle'.
I'm exaggerating, sure, but driving on these roads has a way of focussing the mind and body, drawing you into the present, sucking the marrow out of life and all that. It makes driving on the motorway feel like you're flatlining.
It reminds me of mountain roads I drove in India a couple of years ago; same giant coaches storming around blind bends on the wrong side of the road, same devil-may-care bikers, same liberal use of the horn to let people know you're around, even the same bovine expressions on the pedestrians as vehicles zip by close enough to shave their eyebrows.
So I was wondering, where in the world was your craziest driving experience, and what stories have you got from roads that tested your taste for mortality? If we get a decent response we'll even list a top five.
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11 Comments for "Mad, bad and dangerous to know"
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Some of the craziest, most harrowing driving experiences occurred in Croatia. The coastal highway from Split to Dubrovnik is full of coaches defying all physical limits of grip and avoiding rollovers, plus the three Italian drivers in all existence that drive remarkably slow.
On the island of Hvar, there is basically one road along the island which has sheer cliffs and blind turns abounding. Here there are two types of drivers: slow or maniac. I chose maniac to avoid scary passing situations and managed to hold off a 5-Series with my rental Astra. The whole time my girlfriend was keeping her eyes inside the car, too scared to look over the edge of the cliff. It was probably the most fun I've ever had driving and to your point, I learned early on to use the horn. A lot.
For me, it was Italy. With a weedy diesel-powered Punto being flung around the roads at Lake Garda following a satnav that had less directional sense than me. There was an Italian driving an old Fiat 500, which having just overtook me, clipped a curb on a bend and overturned only to roll a couple of times and land on its wheels. The driver then restarted and drove on as normal, only to overtake me again, this time more successfully. No faffing about calling the cops, he just got on with it. Spot on.
I always love driving around in the Ardennes here in Belgium. Legal speed limit of 90km/h on twisting roads with sometimes small cliffs (but still deep enough to kill you) on your left and a solid rock wall on the other side, beautiful forest always keeping you company, and wonderful small villages to pass through...
In the Ardèche, southern France. One year after passing my test I had my first experience of 'the wrong side of the road'. Trying my very hardest I was sticking tirelessly to the right... unlike the locals!
On tight country roads, through valleys, the road is about 1.2 cars wide, and on one side is a cliff (the flat rock to smash into kind) and on the other is a cliff (the utter lack of a flat rock for you to fall off of kind).
All this seems dangerous, yes? Apparently not, as the locals find it much more fun to take a racing line through these 'death bends' as I like to call them. The only thing stopping you from dying is the simple probability that there aren't many cars to crash into.
I took a particularly hair-raising drive through Armenia on the way to Gyumri. Yet when I looked on Google to check the route we took, the whole country is completely blank. There is probably a reason for this. It is not a journey for the faint of heart.
I think every road in India is a test of ability, patience, reflexes, your's and your car's. The lesser rules you follow, the safer you are.
My best experiences have been driving from the Salinas Grandes to Salta in north-western Argentina, and driving from Santiago Chile to Mendoza Argentina (Paso Los Libertadores).
Both are mountain passes, involving more than 40 zig-zags, with staggering 'drops' from every bend, little in the way of road barriers, unpredictable oncoming traffic (horses and carts mixed with tanker trucks) and fantastic views.
I live in British Columbia, Canada, and so we have a lot of mountains and not that many roads to go through them. But there is one in particular that was so terrifying I had to stop afterward and check that I hadn't soiled myself.
Imagine if you will, being a thousand feet up a mountain on a winding narrow two-lane road without barriers. Now add rock slides that gradually chip away the outer edge of the road until it's one lane and shrinking. This is Highway 15 south of a place called Lilloet, and God help you if someone comes the other way while you're on it.
Recently got back from honeymoon in Sri Lanka, where double and triple overtaking is the norm. Coming down a pass not unlike Stelvio, our driver was overtaking a lorry on a blind bend, and he was being overtaken by two mopeds.
Korinthos to Patra 85km 'motorway' in Greece, which consists of a single lane each way with a third lane in the middle for overtaking by both lanes! Drivers from either way use this middle lane as their exclusive second lane, with obvious and often tragic results.
Craziest driving experience? On the A6 in Belper driving home yesterday when three cars almost hit me in separate incidents.