KERB!!!
I think this word "Kerb" will forever bring fear to my heart and nightmares to my Dad! But before I explain things, I must firstly apologise to my Dad (who will probably read this) in saying I really appreciate your driving and you being brave enough to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, but seriously I did not exactly enjoy this part of the trip (however, there was a worse moment, so don't feel too bad... all in good humor!)
So, you may have guessed from that little interlude that we did some driving. Um, let me clarify that, my Dad did some driving and I did a lot of "backseat driving" and yelling! It was decided that it would be a good idea to hire a car for two days and to go driving into the interior of the island. Sounded good. We picked the car up on the Monday morning and had a little practice run of driving on the right hand side of the road (note we are used to driving on the left hand side of the road... the CORRECT side!!). All was fine, bar going around a small roundabout the wrong way (for the Canarians) the correct way for us (the Brits!). Thankfully no-one was in the area to witness this little mishap and we found it rather amusing (probably the only moment I found amusing!) After finding our accommodation (eventually) and packing to have a day in the interior, we set off all ready for adventure... Dad driving, Mom in the back (behind Dad) and me in the passenger seat with the map. Who said I could read maps anyway!!! Especially in a foreign language.
Okay, I am generally pretty good at giving directions (I will blow my own horn here) but it doesn't help if I have a map that isn't exactly clear about where roads go and which roads join into others (or not). I got us lost! And in the process got us onto the MOTORWAY before we were actually ready to get onto a busy road (oops!). Still things were okay at this point (despite us heading in the wrong direction). After our little diversion and a couple more wrong turns, I eventually got us onto the correct road to head inland (why oh why did I do this??? I had the map, I should have taken us elsewhere! Why inland?).
Initially things went well. I had the added task, now, of letting my Dad know if we were likely to hit the kerb/cars/walls/anything to the right of the car. Which was okay. The odd yell of "kerb" saw us move to the left a little. No harm done... there was room on the right for some error, so I wasn't too stressed at present. Not a problem.
So the journey began. I had a chance to look at the view as we headed for the hills (mountains!) and enjoy the vegetation and geology. As we traveled, we decided to stop off at an Aboriginal village, which we didn't even know was there but saw this "touristy" place so stopped. On having a quick look at the outside entrance, we decided to venture into the village and have a look around. At the entrance we came across a novel idea: there were various breeds of dogs (someone's pets presumably) all sitting along a wall with a signpost asking visitors to feel free to take the dogs for a walk. My Mom and I took a dog each but shortly into our tour of the village I landed up with both dogs. So, some photos of the village and scenes around the village:
Left: scene from village.
Right: geese at village... with goslings.
After our visit of the Aboriginal village, which told us of how the original Canarians lived and all about their society, religious beliefs and way of life, we carried on with our journey into the interior. At this point I started losing interest in the scenery and became very aware of the kerb (or lack thereof) and the sudden drop (disappearance of tarmac and solid ground) on the right. Any sign of the car going a bit too far to the right was met with a yelp of "KERB" from me. I don't recall the rest of the journey that well at all. I know we traveled through villages and towns, namely San Bartolome De Tirajana, Tejeda, Artenara, Valleseco and Teror because I had to look out for those signs and keep us it the right direction, but the road and the white line depicting the edge of the road were my main focus. I think what made things bad for me was that I was not used to being on the right side of the car where there was no road on the right of me (I know as a driver one tends to sit on the right hand side of the car, but it is rather off-putting when there actually is no road to the right of you, as would be the case if you were actually driving in the UK); also the roads were narrow and windy (very, very windy!), and there was no room for error - if we went over the white line we went off the road! And to add to all of this, the drivers coming in the opposite direction all seemed to want to be on our side of the road! This just totally freaked me out and poor Dad got the brunt of it. Kerb... Kerb... kerb.... KERB... For the next oh I don't know how many hours my adrenalin was pumping and I felt ILL! I can't even remember where we stopped off for lunch, I am just amazed I managed to eat. I did enjoy the stops though (could breath again and pry my eyes off the road) but alas dreaded getting back into the car. But, to be a trooper, here are some photos of the area (which admittedly I was glad to have seen - even if it was later when I looked at the photos!)...
Left: I haven't a clue where this is, but think it may be close to the Aboriginal village...
Right: still no clue. But nice scenery.
Above: looking up from road (we had stopped). There were signs of caves at the top in the rock formation.
After driving through Teror, we headed towards Las Palmas and got ourselves onto the motorway heading back towards our accommodation. At this point I could relax, as there was plenty of room for error - the "emergency lane" was great!!!! I also didn't need to yell kerb anymore as the cat's eyes did the job of informing us that we were wandering out of the lane... thub thub thub! This I am sure was a relief for my Dad too as I think he was getting a little tense with me and my nerves!
I will admit that I did get a good nights sleep after this trip, so at least one good thing came out of this days adventures... and boy did I need a good nights sleep. I knew that the next day would probably be just the same but hopefully not worse ...
So, you may have guessed from that little interlude that we did some driving. Um, let me clarify that, my Dad did some driving and I did a lot of "backseat driving" and yelling! It was decided that it would be a good idea to hire a car for two days and to go driving into the interior of the island. Sounded good. We picked the car up on the Monday morning and had a little practice run of driving on the right hand side of the road (note we are used to driving on the left hand side of the road... the CORRECT side!!). All was fine, bar going around a small roundabout the wrong way (for the Canarians) the correct way for us (the Brits!). Thankfully no-one was in the area to witness this little mishap and we found it rather amusing (probably the only moment I found amusing!) After finding our accommodation (eventually) and packing to have a day in the interior, we set off all ready for adventure... Dad driving, Mom in the back (behind Dad) and me in the passenger seat with the map. Who said I could read maps anyway!!! Especially in a foreign language.
Okay, I am generally pretty good at giving directions (I will blow my own horn here) but it doesn't help if I have a map that isn't exactly clear about where roads go and which roads join into others (or not). I got us lost! And in the process got us onto the MOTORWAY before we were actually ready to get onto a busy road (oops!). Still things were okay at this point (despite us heading in the wrong direction). After our little diversion and a couple more wrong turns, I eventually got us onto the correct road to head inland (why oh why did I do this??? I had the map, I should have taken us elsewhere! Why inland?).
Initially things went well. I had the added task, now, of letting my Dad know if we were likely to hit the kerb/cars/walls/anything to the right of the car. Which was okay. The odd yell of "kerb" saw us move to the left a little. No harm done... there was room on the right for some error, so I wasn't too stressed at present. Not a problem.
So the journey began. I had a chance to look at the view as we headed for the hills (mountains!) and enjoy the vegetation and geology. As we traveled, we decided to stop off at an Aboriginal village, which we didn't even know was there but saw this "touristy" place so stopped. On having a quick look at the outside entrance, we decided to venture into the village and have a look around. At the entrance we came across a novel idea: there were various breeds of dogs (someone's pets presumably) all sitting along a wall with a signpost asking visitors to feel free to take the dogs for a walk. My Mom and I took a dog each but shortly into our tour of the village I landed up with both dogs. So, some photos of the village and scenes around the village:
Left: scene from village.
Right: geese at village... with goslings.
After our visit of the Aboriginal village, which told us of how the original Canarians lived and all about their society, religious beliefs and way of life, we carried on with our journey into the interior. At this point I started losing interest in the scenery and became very aware of the kerb (or lack thereof) and the sudden drop (disappearance of tarmac and solid ground) on the right. Any sign of the car going a bit too far to the right was met with a yelp of "KERB" from me. I don't recall the rest of the journey that well at all. I know we traveled through villages and towns, namely San Bartolome De Tirajana, Tejeda, Artenara, Valleseco and Teror because I had to look out for those signs and keep us it the right direction, but the road and the white line depicting the edge of the road were my main focus. I think what made things bad for me was that I was not used to being on the right side of the car where there was no road on the right of me (I know as a driver one tends to sit on the right hand side of the car, but it is rather off-putting when there actually is no road to the right of you, as would be the case if you were actually driving in the UK); also the roads were narrow and windy (very, very windy!), and there was no room for error - if we went over the white line we went off the road! And to add to all of this, the drivers coming in the opposite direction all seemed to want to be on our side of the road! This just totally freaked me out and poor Dad got the brunt of it. Kerb... Kerb... kerb.... KERB... For the next oh I don't know how many hours my adrenalin was pumping and I felt ILL! I can't even remember where we stopped off for lunch, I am just amazed I managed to eat. I did enjoy the stops though (could breath again and pry my eyes off the road) but alas dreaded getting back into the car. But, to be a trooper, here are some photos of the area (which admittedly I was glad to have seen - even if it was later when I looked at the photos!)...
Left: I haven't a clue where this is, but think it may be close to the Aboriginal village...
Right: still no clue. But nice scenery.
Above: looking up from road (we had stopped). There were signs of caves at the top in the rock formation.
After driving through Teror, we headed towards Las Palmas and got ourselves onto the motorway heading back towards our accommodation. At this point I could relax, as there was plenty of room for error - the "emergency lane" was great!!!! I also didn't need to yell kerb anymore as the cat's eyes did the job of informing us that we were wandering out of the lane... thub thub thub! This I am sure was a relief for my Dad too as I think he was getting a little tense with me and my nerves!
I will admit that I did get a good nights sleep after this trip, so at least one good thing came out of this days adventures... and boy did I need a good nights sleep. I knew that the next day would probably be just the same but hopefully not worse ...
posted by CJ | 6:45 AM
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