Hair-raising journeys

[aaron]

Who here has had the most hair raising journey during their travels?

Perhaps a really bumpy landing? An unplanned stop on your flight due to "technical difficulties"? A broken down bus? Or a crash in a taxi?!

Go on... tell us what you've experienced!

Aaron
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[Hub-UK]

I remember driving to the South of France one year from Wales all in one journey (no overnight stops). Wales to Dover was a marathon in itself in those days. The crossing was an evening crossing so I found myself heading down the motorway to Paris in the early hours of the morning.

All of a sudden I came across roadworks. There were cones everywhere but it was not clear which way to go - the next thing I knew the car was in a trench about 18 inches deep. Needless to say I had felt the drop so I stopped immediately. There appeared to be no damage. It was pitch dark with no other trafiic around. There was no way back the way I had got into the trench so there was no alternative but to move forward to see if I could get out that way.

Luckily the trench gradually sloped back up to the road level after about 100 metres. I was able to get out and continue my journey without any damage!


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[Red Tape]

I'm not a nervous flyer at all, but I can't say I've not been startled. About 8 years ago (wow, that long) I was flying into Norfolk, Virginia to attend a funeral. As we were cruising along after taking off from Detroit, the pilots asked the flight attendants to be seated, as there were reports of severe turbulence ahead (oh, and as Bette Davis says, "Fasten your seat belts! Its going to be a bumpy ride!)".

All was calm, flight was smooth, flight attendants were seated when suddenly we dropped. WHOOSH! My stomach was in my throat. Someone screamed. The plane shook. But after all of that the vision that will stick with me is watching the wine from a cup being held by a woman a row up and on the other side of the aise rise out of the cup, hit the ceiling in a blob, and fall back down. It was red wine.

We landed without incident.

[Dan]

The cabin crew gave up serving drinks to us on our way from Zurich to Nairobi in July, but the turbulence caused nothing as dramatic as RT's trip!

My contribution will have to be the bus journey we took from Alausi to Cuenca in Bolivia (November 1999).

Having been stubborn with the driver (lets call it negotiating with him!), he was keen to get us to Cuenca to be rid of us. We were, afterall, only paying him the standard fare (instead of the inflated price he tried to charge us - another story). During the 2 hour journey, 3 people hit the ceiling of the bus as he hit large pot holes at top speed. I left my seat about four times, but managed to avoid anything solid on my way up.

Certainly counts as hair-raising in my book.

Dan.

[paul]

[Dan]

As my monologue about our honeymoon proves, I'm not a skilled travel writer, so no; I'm not writing a book. We weren't comfortable on our way to Cuenca though

Dan.

[paul]

Oh duh... I must just be having a slow afternoon. When you said "in my book", I made the assumption that you were writing a book. I didn't read it as "in my book" - ie. in my opinion. Duh!

I'll make sure I get an earlier night tonight, methinks... been working into the early hours too often lately.

Paul
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[mikeman]

Dan, I have to agree that for pure hair-raising travel, nothing quite matches bus riding in the mountains of South America. I mentally made my peace with the idea of dying, on the mountain roads down there. It was that or walk.

The whole package is coming back to me; blessings before departure, wrecks sighted off the road 100's of feet below, the macho school of downhill driving (brakes are for cowards), mind altering views off the cliff edges, honk and pass on blind corners, mechanical failures....

Oh yeah.