lotusanne
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Yeah, thats a thought - wonder if they ever use helicopters..?:banana:
SAFETY WARNING: "THE CORKSCREW", Inverfarigaig, South Loch Ness.
- Thread starter scampa
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Yeah, thats a thought - wonder if they ever use helicopters..?:banana:
lotusanne
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Well scampa, we can see why you got your name - you are a little scamp!! Keeping everyone enthralled and anxious like this - you dont write the endings for soap operas do you? the cliff hanger followed by DUM DUM DUMti DUM etc ?? Anyway with your obvious talent for drawing in your audience my guess it will be peak viewing time when you reveal all - maybe 7.30 tonight??:lol-049:
landydriver
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Firefox
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scampa
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Sorry Folks, I didn't mean to leave you all hanging in suspense! I'll try to finish the story tonight or tomorrow when I have more time. And don't worry Teffy, it does have a happy ending!
Just to answer some queries... I believe that Google Earth use a 4x4 when they're filming, which would be the best type of vehicle for this, especially with the transmission in Low Range. You can follow the route on Google Earth BTW.
As I've said, cars and vans do use this pass, but my worry, even in a more suitable vehicle, would be the chance of meeting someone else head-on halfway up or down. It's only single-track with no room to pass, so one of you would have to negotiate the very steep hairpin bends in reverse to get out! You can't see if anyone else is on the road ahead (or behind) because the road is within woodland, so if you decide to try it, that could be a real problem.
And I really don't want to over-dramatise or exaggerate the event, but as I peered over the edge into the abyss, hundreds of feet below I was sure that I saw the devil beckoning me with a huge grin. But equally, it may have been a hedgehog!
Just to answer some queries... I believe that Google Earth use a 4x4 when they're filming, which would be the best type of vehicle for this, especially with the transmission in Low Range. You can follow the route on Google Earth BTW.
As I've said, cars and vans do use this pass, but my worry, even in a more suitable vehicle, would be the chance of meeting someone else head-on halfway up or down. It's only single-track with no room to pass, so one of you would have to negotiate the very steep hairpin bends in reverse to get out! You can't see if anyone else is on the road ahead (or behind) because the road is within woodland, so if you decide to try it, that could be a real problem.
And I really don't want to over-dramatise or exaggerate the event, but as I peered over the edge into the abyss, hundreds of feet below I was sure that I saw the devil beckoning me with a huge grin. But equally, it may have been a hedgehog!
lotusanne
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I would worry even if it was a hedgehog beckoning you with a huge grin Scampa!!! God, I am NEVER going to go on that road!! Have done the Lake district ones and they are bad enough, especially as ususally misty!! Waiting for next installment with bated breath!!
Deleted member 14127
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Last time we were in Montenegro we thought we'd take the mountain pass rather than drive through the tunnel. As we climbed higher and higher up each hairpin bend the view became more spectacular and scary :scared:
We had almost reached the top and as we turned the last hairpin bend.................... the road in front of us had disappeared - straight down the side of the mountain. There was only half a tiny bit of road left clinging to the edge.
We had my elderly parents and young Daughter in the car and by now everyone was a little bored with the breath-taking scenery and had become terrified. There was nowhere to turn round and we would have to reverse all the way back down to the bottom.
With that another car came towards us, heading down the mountain close to the collapsed road but on the other side. We watched as he carried on negotiating the one tiny remaining piece of road and casually drove passed us. If he could do it so could we..............so we slowly, slowly drove towards the broken road and hugged the mountain side holding our breath until we were safely the other side. Big cheers and sighs of relief followed and we decided to take the tunnel on our reverse journey.
We had almost reached the top and as we turned the last hairpin bend.................... the road in front of us had disappeared - straight down the side of the mountain. There was only half a tiny bit of road left clinging to the edge.
We had my elderly parents and young Daughter in the car and by now everyone was a little bored with the breath-taking scenery and had become terrified. There was nowhere to turn round and we would have to reverse all the way back down to the bottom.
With that another car came towards us, heading down the mountain close to the collapsed road but on the other side. We watched as he carried on negotiating the one tiny remaining piece of road and casually drove passed us. If he could do it so could we..............so we slowly, slowly drove towards the broken road and hugged the mountain side holding our breath until we were safely the other side. Big cheers and sighs of relief followed and we decided to take the tunnel on our reverse journey.
lotusanne
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OMG what a story!!!!! Thank god that car came - or you would have had to do the reversing all the way back down and who knows what the end of the story would have been then!! I hope Scampa's tale isnt going to bring out too many more horror stories, poor Teffy will not sleep tinight!!:wave:
Deleted member 12539
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When I had one leisure battery, and it was low, our Erbespacher would not work, because of the volts it needed to start up and run the fan.
What type of 'Erby' do you have?
We now have two leisure batteries and a solar panel, cos New Years Eve is bleedin cold without heating!!!!!!:cool1:
elainekirk
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Well Beemer I have Erm ... I will look in my owners manual tomoro as I am ignorant of its model BUT I now have a working van , the rac man came and declared the problem to be the engine battery so he jump started me as he had no battery big enough and I rang the garage.in Hope, Derbyshire. who were awesomely helpful and managed to source A battery by 1.30 whereupon i drove the van the mile from site to garage terrified that at any moment I would stall it :scared: and they spent the best part of an hour fitting it and checking everything on the electrics hab
and engine before declaring it good-to-go and when I went to pay they only charged for the battery saying " we fit them for no charge" . Service above and beyond methinks.
.
SCAMPA please!!! Before I bore everybody.
and engine before declaring it good-to-go and when I went to pay they only charged for the battery saying " we fit them for no charge" . Service above and beyond methinks.
.
SCAMPA please!!! Before I bore everybody.
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Teffy
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Well looks like we're all going to spend the night hanging off the edge!! :scared:
scampa
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Just a little more patience,
Hopefully the ending of the story should be on here within an hour or so......... :sleep-040:
scampa
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Part two.....
Right, where was I? ...Oh yes, part way up The Corkscrew and feeling a little "on edge".....
First thing I did was to rescue my dog via the side door, then quickly summed up my options and priorities. For a brief moment I wondered if I could just walk away nonchalantly and abandon the van there, but I dismissed that idea. I had a couple of folding safety warning triangles in the van, but they were at the very back with my other gear, so I couldn't get to them safely. Instead, I took my hi-viz jacket, wrapped it around some branches and laid it on the road around the next bend to warn anyone coming down the hill.
To get the van back onto the road I would need either a tow from above, preferably from a tractor or 4x4, or the use of a winch and pulley, which could be sited either above or below my position on the road. The third method of recovery would be a vertical lift from a helicopter, but I put that to the back of my mind for the time being....
Although the easiest recovery would be from above, I knew that there were houses near the bottom of the hill, so I walked down to look for help and a telephone. After some door-knocking I found a lovely lady and some very helpful lads. Luckily, they knew a very useful local man called Rob who had a 4x4 complete with a winch! He was also ex-fire brigade, so I knew that he would be very capable!
They managed to contact him by phone and he was very willing to help. Unfortunately, he was presently in a different vehicle on the road above The Corkscrew, and some fool had blocked his quickest route down, so he had to drive about nine miles on back roads to get to us!
Meanwhile, I was very kindly given the use of the telephone and contacted Inverness police to inform them of the blocked route. I told them of our plan, but for some reason they turned down my suggestion of a helicopter if it didn't work!
Anyway, a short time later Rob had arrived and had his 4x4 positioned on the road below my van, with a pulley attached to a convenient tree in front of the van so that it would be winched forwards onto the road. The van was back on the road in no time at all.
I was still thinking that it would be safest for me to continue driving forwards up the pass, instead of trying to get around the sharp bends in reverse, but Rob convinced me that the bends got even more difficult up ahead and it would be more sensible to go down again.
Being a true gentleman, he even offered to reverse my van down for me, which in the end I very happily let him do! I figured that he knew the bends better than I did, plus to be honest, I was feeling just a little shaken (but not stirred!) by my experience earlier. It must've been that nasty glare from the hedgehog!
I think he said that on average he rescued two or three vehicles each year from The Corkscrew. Some of the locals completely refuse to use it, and none of them could believe that it appeared in a guide book!
After a chat I gave them my sincere thanks and said my goodbyes. I'd had the pleasure of meeting some genuine, friendly and extremely helpful people!
We all lived happily ever after....
Right, where was I? ...Oh yes, part way up The Corkscrew and feeling a little "on edge".....
First thing I did was to rescue my dog via the side door, then quickly summed up my options and priorities. For a brief moment I wondered if I could just walk away nonchalantly and abandon the van there, but I dismissed that idea. I had a couple of folding safety warning triangles in the van, but they were at the very back with my other gear, so I couldn't get to them safely. Instead, I took my hi-viz jacket, wrapped it around some branches and laid it on the road around the next bend to warn anyone coming down the hill.
To get the van back onto the road I would need either a tow from above, preferably from a tractor or 4x4, or the use of a winch and pulley, which could be sited either above or below my position on the road. The third method of recovery would be a vertical lift from a helicopter, but I put that to the back of my mind for the time being....
Although the easiest recovery would be from above, I knew that there were houses near the bottom of the hill, so I walked down to look for help and a telephone. After some door-knocking I found a lovely lady and some very helpful lads. Luckily, they knew a very useful local man called Rob who had a 4x4 complete with a winch! He was also ex-fire brigade, so I knew that he would be very capable!
They managed to contact him by phone and he was very willing to help. Unfortunately, he was presently in a different vehicle on the road above The Corkscrew, and some fool had blocked his quickest route down, so he had to drive about nine miles on back roads to get to us!
Meanwhile, I was very kindly given the use of the telephone and contacted Inverness police to inform them of the blocked route. I told them of our plan, but for some reason they turned down my suggestion of a helicopter if it didn't work!
Anyway, a short time later Rob had arrived and had his 4x4 positioned on the road below my van, with a pulley attached to a convenient tree in front of the van so that it would be winched forwards onto the road. The van was back on the road in no time at all.
I was still thinking that it would be safest for me to continue driving forwards up the pass, instead of trying to get around the sharp bends in reverse, but Rob convinced me that the bends got even more difficult up ahead and it would be more sensible to go down again.
Being a true gentleman, he even offered to reverse my van down for me, which in the end I very happily let him do! I figured that he knew the bends better than I did, plus to be honest, I was feeling just a little shaken (but not stirred!) by my experience earlier. It must've been that nasty glare from the hedgehog!
I think he said that on average he rescued two or three vehicles each year from The Corkscrew. Some of the locals completely refuse to use it, and none of them could believe that it appeared in a guide book!
After a chat I gave them my sincere thanks and said my goodbyes. I'd had the pleasure of meeting some genuine, friendly and extremely helpful people!
We all lived happily ever after....
lotusanne
Guest
Aww, a very heart warming ending Scampa! You must have been soooo grateful to them, its lovely to hear stories of people helping others like that, thanks for sharing, and I dare say the members of this forum will rmember to give that one a wide berth!! Though maybe not - a couple have already sounded like they were rising to the challenge!!
mark61
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Great news, sounds like a well thought out recovery. Good job keeping on top of it and getting it organised while your MH was hanging over the edge. My first port of call in a tricky situation is the kettle, have a brew and hope everything will be alright. lol
Minisorella
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Did anyone else have flashbacks to The Italian Job? :lol-053: Yikes! Lucky escape there Scampa and a happy ending as promised - thank goodness! The kindness of strangers never ceases to amaze me... aren't people wonderful?
silverweed
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SAFETY WARNING: "THE CORKSCREW", Inverfarigaig, South Loch Ness.
What luck, could have had a nasty end that one
What luck, could have had a nasty end that one
rugbyken
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Last autumn in France we aimed to visit Conques officially the most beautifull village in the world (Sunday times) stopped on an aire nearby got up in the morning for Tom Tom to tell us Conques was only 15kms away so set off , when we went straight up should have realised not on main route but carried on , when we got above the clouds should have given it a second thought, when the French lady driver going up the hill as we descended shook her head as we passed we thought only that she didn't know I was an experienced driver and single track roads held no fear's ,
As we went down the hill could see across the valley a lovely little village stopped to take some photos eventually realised this was where we were headed no road signage carried on got close to the village could see a picturesque stream in the valley stopped for more photo's , carried on and got to the bottom with a bridge over the stream barely 4ft wide my Bessie is about 7'6" and 23ft long luckily there was a gateway and after a 27 point turn got about checked all the way back up the hill no warning signs anywhere had to go back about 10k to find a main rd back, worth it though the village is stunning though a bit of a tourist trap
As we went down the hill could see across the valley a lovely little village stopped to take some photos eventually realised this was where we were headed no road signage carried on got close to the village could see a picturesque stream in the valley stopped for more photo's , carried on and got to the bottom with a bridge over the stream barely 4ft wide my Bessie is about 7'6" and 23ft long luckily there was a gateway and after a 27 point turn got about checked all the way back up the hill no warning signs anywhere had to go back about 10k to find a main rd back, worth it though the village is stunning though a bit of a tourist trap
Teffy
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Scampa that was just scampish waiting until I'd gone to bed to finish your story. Glad to hear it all worked out so easily in the end. Yes, the world is full of lovely people, a great many of them in Scotland.
scampa
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That reminds me...
When you've driven over the mountain-top route towards Applecross and are descending down the other side, you see a road sign that reads "Toilets 2 miles ahead".
I couldn't help thinking that they might be 2 miles (or more) too late for some drivers!!
When you've driven over the mountain-top route towards Applecross and are descending down the other side, you see a road sign that reads "Toilets 2 miles ahead".
I couldn't help thinking that they might be 2 miles (or more) too late for some drivers!!