Sunday 29 July 2012

Glasgow to Barr

This time last week I was about to set off on what is by far one of my favourite drives, down what is said to be one of Scotland's most sketchy roads the A77. I have seen more cars in bushes and upturned in fields on the 69 mile stretch of it I drive than any other road I enjoy. When you roll on down it it doesn't really seem all that bad when you join from the M77 at Ayr, but as you get further down it starts to get twisty, tighter with multiple blind crests and corners, that's when you start to see when it can come all unglued, but any way I digress, this is meant to be about the trip its self!
 
We (my self and my lovely girlfriend) go down there every now and again to visit her parents (and cats and dog, they're pretty rad too) and stay the night and come back up the next day which is nice, its a nice part of the country about 4 miles form the coast. The drive its self takes about an hour and a half to two hours, depending on traffic/weather conditions (obviously you don't want to drive to hard in the pouring rain), along a pretty nice and scenic yet admittedly sketchy road once you're off the motorway. This would have been yet another nice drive down had it not been for the rather heavy rain and pretty high level of surface water, that lead to a couple of moments, under steer brought on by aquaplaning is not something I particularly enjoy, the first incident was on a roundabout, that was interesting, I wanted the second exit and the car wanted the first. While trying to keep the revs at about mid range, simply so I could get back up to 70 and continue on my journey, obviously due to the high level of surface water, that I never compensated for, the tyres broke free and started spinning and then steering was not something I had available any more, causing me to leave my lane into the one next to mine, thankfully there where no cars to my side, but bricks where shat all the same.

 I cant quite figure out why I love this drive as much as I do, it may have something to do with it being the first "long" drive I embarked upon by my self, or that its a road that makes you actually drive rather than pointing the car and holding the speedometer at 70, the combination of long sweeping fast corners, long straights and tight turns make for a fun drive that I look forward to every time I get to do it.
At the moment I have no real drives planned, just what ever comes up, not including my commute as its pretty dull, Though I will be heading up to Loch Lomond in a couple of weeks, and the real question there is do I take the crow road, or do I not? Anyhoo cheers for giving this a read of you did, so long, until my next post!

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