In the years that we lived in UK I got the ride in the car from time to time. We would go down the drive and turn left and left....
That way we would go to Hayling Island (about 10 miles - 16 km)
Or we would go to Chichester (about 20miles /32km)
Or Mr B and I would go to the railway station to pick up F on a Friday night
Sometimes we went right at the bottom of the drive and took some Hampshire backroads to Chichester - but it was still about 20 miles, just considerably more scenic.
One day about 3 and half years ago we went left right at the bottom of the drive and I knew immediately that we were going the wrong way. I studied the houses, the signs at the intersections, the roundabouts, the services stations - all new but I might need references for getting back. Up until then I knew exactly when we were approaching home but we were in scary new territory now.
After a while I was on information overload and decided the best thing would be to sleep, on F's knees. After we had been driving long enough to get to Chichester my alarm clock went of and I sat up expecting to see the familiar terraces of painted houses only for us to plunge, at that very instant, into a hole in the ground.
Rats live in holes in the ground. Cats do not. We explore caves but burrows are an entirely different 'kettle of fish.... or rats'.
PANIC.
LOTS PANIC.
F didn't seem panicked and Mr B was still driving, so I closed my eyes and didn't open them again until we stopped a couple of hours later.
We weren't in Chichester. We were not back home either.
That was the last day I saw home (or Chichester for that matter).
I wonder if home is still there.
Human sized burrows have become commonplace since there. I went in one under the sea to France - where I was distressed to find us driving on the wrong side of the road. Driving on the wrong side of the road has become commonplace now too.
I have been through the longest tunnel in Switzerland, and dozens of tunnels in Greece.
Here is one viewed from my co-pilot seat....
PS - going under the sea didn't feel like a burrow because we were inside a well lit train. That was my first train experience too.
I don't like tunnels. Too much heavy stuff pressing down over my head!
ReplyDeleteWell yes, but they are better than roads with unsupported rock overhangs - for example https://www.naturespic.com/newzealand/image.asp?id=57865
Deleteooohhh... scary...
DeleteHari Om
ReplyDelete...but what about that famous feline instinct for impending change - the noticing of boxes being packed, of suitcases and furniture shifting??? It took a tunnel to discover you were moving homes? Golly I have to reassess my cat psychology!!! Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
Dear YAM-aunty, i seldom had both humans at home together. F away during the week, Mr B away in weekends and sometimes he would be away weeks at a time too. The furniture went a few weeks before we did. I got used to living with just Mr B and a bed and my food bowl. A couple of months later F came back and then we went for a drive in the van.... xxx Mr T
DeleteSweet Tigger, you have done more traveling than Beau and Bob and Me all added together. That is toaly Wowsome for a CAT! I know it was shocking to move into another home and not go back to the one you knew. We did that with Max way back in 1989... all other dogs have been right here and after they came here never went away again.
ReplyDeleteI miss the garden, and the allotment (vege garden up the lane), and the neighbours I used to visit during the day. F said we might go back this year, but she said someone else has out allotment now. Xxx Mr T
DeleteI don’t like tunnels either
ReplyDeleteAnd ones that go under water oh my. Just makes me so anxious
I guess we just have to grit our teeth and do it. There are so many these days
...that's the point of my post really Angela - we have always come out the other end. That seems to be the good thing about tunnels; they are open at both ends.
Delete