{"id":1317,"date":"2012-04-15T13:10:07","date_gmt":"2012-04-15T11:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katebailward.com\/drivinglikeamaniac\/?p=1317"},"modified":"2012-04-15T13:17:03","modified_gmt":"2012-04-15T11:17:03","slug":"off-the-beaten-track-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katebailward.com\/drivinglikeamaniac\/2012\/04\/off-the-beaten-track-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Off the beaten track"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Prudence<\/a>\u201cSo it\u2019s becoming obvious why your grandparents left here, Maryann<\/a>,\u201d I muse out loud. We\u2019ve been to Borgetto<\/a> twice in the past two days, and both days we\u2019ve climbed our way to the top of the mountain, into the heart of thick, damp clouds. There doesn\u2019t appear to be anything of note in Borgetto itself. The town below the cloud line, Partinico<\/a>, has more to it, but that only means that they can, legitimately, claim to be a one-horse town. Borgetto doesn\u2019t even seem to have a dog. It does, however, have exceptionally narrow roads. There\u2019s a rudimentary one-way system in action on the streets, with arrows spraypainted onto the road surface. It\u2019s not entirely helpful when they\u2019re not done at junctions, though. \u201cCan we go this way?\u201d asks Maryann, as she swings the wheel left. I\u2019m not sure, but we\u2019re committed to it now, and at least we\u2019re going downhill. Maryann curses the fact that she can only drive automatic. \u201cIf I could drive shift I could\u2019ve got a smaller car.\u201d We crawl through streets built for donkeys and carts, eyeing the wingmirrors and hoping that nothing comes the other way.<\/p>\n

Up ahead, I see someone pulling out of their driveway and about to turn towards us. Maryann is in the process of negotiating a tricky manoeuvre involving cars on either side, muttered curses and extreme sucking in of breath. Having finished, she looks up and notices the other car. \u201cNo WAY, buster!\u201d He agrees and backs up. Maryann looks across at me. \u201cOK, I\u2019ve had enough of this. Let\u2019s get out of here.\u201d We make our way out of town, Maryann jubilant at having finally found her Sicilian roots, me breathing a sigh of relief at having some air and space either side of me.<\/p>\n

Ten minutes later claustrophobia seems like the easy option.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m clutching the sat-nav in my hands and directing Maryann in a slow-mo parody of rally car co-driving. We\u2019re in cloud so thick that we can barely see ten foot in front of the bonnet, on a road that\u2019s crumbling down the side of the mountain, covered in bits of bush and rock from whenever the last time it was that there was a landslide. I\u2019m trying not to think about the fact that it might have been recently. My feet brace into the footwell as I direct our slow progress down zig-zagging mountain bends. \u201cOK, follow the road round to the left, coming right back on yourself \u2026\u201d Judging by the undisturbed debris scattered about it doesn\u2019t look like there have been any cars down here for a while. I just hope the road\u2019s actually going to get us to the bottom, because turning round isn\u2019t an option, and going backwards around these bends doesn\u2019t bear thinking about. We plough grimly on.<\/p>\n

I glance up for a moment and do a classic double-take. \u2018What the \u2026?\u201d There\u2019s something large and white looming out of the cloud straight ahead of us, where there should, by rights, be road. Maryann stamps on the brakes. A second later she starts to laugh. \u201cOh my god, look! It\u2019s sheep!\u201d She\u2019s right. Nothing but sheep, gazing at us curiously and cropping the grass on a steep incline on the far side of the reflex-angled bend. I laugh shakily and turn my concentration back to the sat-nav. \u201cSlowly now – sharp right hand bend coming up \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Image by Shadow Planet<\/a> (Creative Commons)<\/p>\n

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