Confessions of a Clumsy Scot

I'm from Scotland, and I'm pretty clumsy. Go figure!

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Do what makes you happy. Taking the adult life one day at a time and enjoying the world around me

The monthly moan- Road Rage

Bealach na Ba – The road to Applecross

Road rage. In a nutshell, I have mad road rage.

Now I like to think, I’m not a bad driver.
But I do have a little bit of a short fuse.

My drive to work in the morning should take less than five minutes, at the moment it can take about twenty. I don’t live in a city, or anywhere a motorway or dual carriageway. I simply get stuck behind someone driving at 10 miles an hour.
I know you’re here on holiday, enjoying our amazing scenery but please if there’s someone behind you, pull over SAFELY.

Also Potholes.
I’d really recommend avoiding those. Some are about a foot deep and you’ll almost certainly burst a tire, buckle a wheel or damage your suspension. If you can’t go round it, stop and crawl over them, you’ll thank me in the long run.

D runs his own garage, but it’s small and he doesn’t do breakdowns but every weekend when our local breakdown companies are busy he will get at least ten calls asking for him to come and change a tire.

Welcome to Scotland, our roads are horrific (well at least on the west coast).

Also although our roads are narrow, you can definitely pass most vehicles without stopping or having to mount a pavement unless it’s a lorry. In fact even two campervans or vans in general can pass safely, just keep to your own side and have some common sense.


Single track road? That’s fine, again just drive to the conditions and KEEP LEFT! Please don’t stop in a passing place on the right. Stop on the road and the car coming towards you will pull into the passing place on the left.

The A9 road in Scotland – One of the busiest roads you might drive on

Thank you for reading my Ted talk, I just needed to get that off my chest.

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7 responses to “The monthly moan- Road Rage”

  1. mountaincoward avatar
    mountaincoward

    Due to doing the Munros and then the Munro Tops, I’ve spent a very lot of time driving in Scotland. Plus, when I was in the Army, I lived on Benbecula/South Uist for 4 and a half years – visitors never seem to get the hang of single track roads with passing places! If I pull over when I reach mine, they still stop at theirs even though I’ve already stopped. Then there are the others who, despite that I’ve already passed mine by the time they’re approaching theirs, they don’t bloody well stop! And I just HATE slow tourist drivers! I wouldn’t mind them if/when they pull over but many are just oblivious! I once followed a camping van from Broadford all the way to Elgol at around 10-15mph (along with a queue of cars) and would he hell pull over!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. confessionsofaclumsyscot avatar
      confessionsofaclumsyscot

      The single track roads definitely are the biggest issue here. Daily cars go off the road because they’re not sure of etiquette or rules, and then cars build up even on main roads because no one ever pulls in!

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. mountaincoward avatar
        mountaincoward

        The funniest I ever saw was at Kinlochewe in Torridon. Two camping vans were approaching each other on the narrow road. Both ignored their passing places and tried to squeeze past each other by going on ‘the verge’ which of course was soft and wet. 2 stranded motorhomes for the afternoon closed the road while it was all sorted out – I was glad I was off up my hill!

        Liked by 1 person

      2. confessionsofaclumsyscot avatar
        confessionsofaclumsyscot

        I’m glad I’ve not witnessed that personally!
        I really do wonder what goes through their heads? Like they don’t usually have to revers for than 50M to find a passing place!

        Liked by 1 person

      3. mountaincoward avatar
        mountaincoward

        Very many of them can’t back to save their lives. I met a guy in a car on our narrow Cumbrian lanes the other day and he’d just passed a farm entrance but was hoping I’d back up instead. I pointed out he only had to back around 20 yards round the corner instead of me backing all the way down the hill and round lots of corners for around quarter of a mile and he just said ‘Oh, I can’t reverse uphill’!

        Liked by 1 person

      4. confessionsofaclumsyscot avatar
        confessionsofaclumsyscot

        I often happily reverse back even if its much further just because I know it’ll be quicker 😂

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      5. mountaincoward avatar
        mountaincoward

        same here – far better than waiting for someone to make a total hash of reversing

        Liked by 1 person

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