Driving on the Wrong Side of the Road

We left the UK at the beginning of December 2018.  The house had been emptied, the cars sold, as small camping van loaded to its limits (and a luggage box added to the back), and we pulled out of our driveway.

Right is back road to Chichester.  I know that route.  Left left is to the railway station and the main road to Chichester, or a trip to Hayling.  I know that route too. Left right is foreign territory.  We don’t go that way.  That’s off the edge of the map for me – that way lie dragons.  From F’s knees, I watched the scenery for as long as it should take to get to Chichester but didn’t see anything I recognize……… and then it was suddenly dark.  F says I panicked.  I never panic.  I might have questioned the unexpected immediate sunset with a bit of head-spinning but quickly figured that darkness and sleep go together so put my hands (yes, hands) over my head to block out the world and went to sleep.

[F’s note: Hindhead Tunnel, A3, Hampshire – he did look a bit alarmed, but must trust us enough to figure he was safe.]

Next thing I know F is handing my passport out the window and some bloke in a uniform is leaning in to pat me and telling her how he has a stripy cat like me at home. 

Let’s be clear about this - there are no cats like me.  I’m the only one!  However this was to become a recurring theme and I’ll return to it.

Mr B drove us into a train.  Car inside train – that’s a novelty.  He has never let us go on the train when we pick F up from the station, but I do know about trains, and we went into another tunnel – a very long tunnel!  At the other end they went to a service station for some sandwiches (I get the ham parts), some fuel and a luggage check.  I was still checking the luggage on the inside when Mr B pulled out and onto a motorway ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD!

I tried to warn him.  I ran about the van checking out all the windows, I know these sorts of roads, like the M27,  multiple lanes, central barriers, fast cars and nowhere to turn around… it’s a serious error to be on the wrong side so he needed to know.  We carried on, nothing bad happened but I figured it best to just close my eyes and think about long grass and summer breezes, and pretend it wasn’t happening.

We survived it – all the way to my first ever night in a ‘hotel’ but hotels are a whole other story.

WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD seems to be a permanent feature of life now.  Even the buses and trucks do it here – motorbikes only sometimes.  Mind you, if you had to judge from the driving past our apartment (and the parking  - and I have had plenty of time and opportunity to study this) you would never guess there was a RIGHT side of the road or which side it was meant to be.