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Wow: all that information! I was reminded, NB, of ‘single track with passing places,’ which we ran into on the Scottish islands. Fun those, but the drivers were generally polite as I recall… Terminology shifts from country to country & can confuse… Doug On Aug 22, 2014, at 4:51 AM, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Many Aussies have said this. I understand. Might even sympathise. But > I'm not sure we need motor vehicles for private transport here. (The most I > ever had was a provisional licence around 20 years old.) > I think the desire to have a car must be strong. A woman on my favourite > island, where you can't go a mile in one direction before you hit the sea, > has said she hopes one day they get a car just so that they could use it > when they go to the pub. That's an expensive self-drive. Or would be. > In the wilder emptier stretches of the country, and it empties quite a bit > in the north, though still densely populated by some measures, one used to > be able to travel on the post bus. It took planning; but so does getting > the money for a car. Now it seems the post will be abolished as we know > it... > There's so little land, I'd hate to see more flattened. > People do just pull off the road on the moors. > Stone hedges etc of antiquity matter to me even if there is no money to do > pollen counts etc under them. I like em being there. Now and then one finds > survival of double hedges, the now tarmaced road between where the cattle > walked, and sometimes you can still see how the tops of the hedges were > cobbled. There's a stretch near Lizard Point where you can walk atop them > cross country. I jumped down into a field a few years back and startled a > labourer who said he'd been working there n years and it had never occurred > to him you could do that. > Fragments of social history if nothing else. They began taking them down on > Scilly, to use them for building, and the wind began to destroy > agriculture. No one had thought of that. > Your sunburnt country is of course somewhat larger, and you don't all speak > of lawnmowers all the time, thank gawd. We have no space and a high > incidence of historical artefacts. > > L > > > > > > > > > > > > > On 22 August 2014 11:06, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > >> Ha, L. Last time I drove in the UK, maybe 1992, up Chester way and into >> Scotland, I thought exactly the same as your button-holing New South >> Welshman. Layovers were so far spaced. You couldn't pull over anywhere, a >> big shock to one used to roads of a certain width or at least having >> flattish spots parallelling roads. Greece, Italy, I did not dare on four >> wheels. Trains and buses sufficed. >> >> B >> >>> On 21 Aug 2014, at 8:26 pm, Lawrence Upton <[log in to unmask]> >> wrote: >>> >>> You were right. That's all news to me. Our rough is getting narrower and >>> narrower often with stone hedges. I met a man - he buttonholed me - in a >>> Penzance pub, a man who had sold lawn mowers in NSW for decades and >> wanted >>> to talk about all the issues. I sidetracked him, fearing for my will to >>> live, and he complained about stone hedges either side of narrow roads in >>> the surrounding areas. They, he said, should be moved or taken away to >>> facilitate traffic flow. I remarked that they have been there centuries >>> perhaps millennia. More evidence on his side as far as he was concerned. >>> >>> Very different perspectives, though I am familiar with the behaviour of >>> psychos - I watch them parking and unparking if there's such a word every >>> morning while I wait for the bus. And there is Greece. >>> >>> In UK, flashing your headlights means Do go ahead dear boy. In Greece, it >>> means get out of my way; am not stopping. I discovered that crossing a >>> multi-lane road at Piraeus. They didn't stop but were adept at going >> round >>> me at speed. I didn't even need a loose plaster. >>> >>> I'll leave you to incorporate what you have told us into your narrative. >>> Good luck! >>> >>> L >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> On 20 August 2014 23:12, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >>>> >>>> Ah, Doug and L, I see now that I perhaps need to explain expectations on >>>> Australian bush roads. Many roads are still dirt roads but influence, >>>> council decisions etc lead to some roads which start to carry a bit more >>>> traffic over the years, getting the go-ahead for a bitumen strip down >> the >>>> middle which is wide enough for one car to get a bit more of a hurtle >> up. >>>> When you come across a car coming from the other direction, both cars >> are >>>> expected to slow down and ease the two passenger side wheels on to the >>>> 'rough', the dirt 'shoulder' of the road while the passing is done. If >> one >>>> car goes early into the rough, sometimes the road is adjudged as wide >>>> enough by the driver of the other to remain hogging bitumen and he >> doesn't >>>> even deign to slow down. >>>> >>>> In my poem, the 'I' formed the impression early that the truck was fully >>>> intent on ploughing on, going nowhere into the rough with his bounty of >>>> piled pineapples, so he jumped early on to the shoulder. If any of you >> have >>>> seen the film Mad Max, the first one, you will know what a psycho can do >>>> bearing down straight at you on the road. >>>> >>>> Clear? >>>> >>>> Bill >>>> >>>>>> On 21 Aug 2014, at 12:32 am, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]> >>>>> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> I sort of feel the same as L, Bill, but also can't quite 'see' the >>>> situation:is the 'me' on the road or a sidewalk? What exactly is that >>>> 'rough'? >>>>> >>>>> The 2nd one cuts close, & fast.. >>>>> >>>>> Doug >>>>>> On Aug 19, 2014, at 3:37 PM, Bill Wootton <[log in to unmask]> >>>> wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>> On Jealous Street >>>>>> >>>>>> A truck rattles towards me >>>>>> not caring to take two wheels >>>>>> into the rough >>>>>> >>>>>> so I swerve off bitumen >>>>>> noting his passing tray >>>>>> piled high with pineapples. >>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> Laser removal >>>>>> >>>>>> Now thou >>>>>> inkless >>>>>> naked form >>>>>> bears >>>>>> closer inspection. >>>>> >>>>> Douglas Barbour >>>>> [log in to unmask] >>>>> >>>>> Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & >> Continuation >>>> 2 (UofAPress). >>>>> Recording Dates (Rubicon Press). >>>>> >>>>> Something else is out there >>>>> godamnit >>>>> >>>>> And I want to hear it >>>>> >>>>> C.D.Wright >>> >> > Douglas Barbour [log in to unmask] Recent publications: (With Sheila E Murphy) Continuations & Continuation 2 (UofAPress). Recording Dates (Rubicon Press). Something else is out there godamnit And I want to hear it C.D.Wright