Adventure Driving

Or "The Narrow Way" or "Nissan Micra, Off-Road Car of the Weekend".

None of this was planned, by the way.

So I visited Córdoba. It is pretty, I was told. And so it was. A good place to shop, and nice shady parks to stop and read a book in.

Then it was time to leave. I thought I would visit the lake on thé map on the way home.

I set off. At the end of the street, right only. Then forces right again, and at the large junction at the bottom, right again. After that one is forced back into thé road where I started. After a second lap, I let the car behind pass me and resolved to follow it.

We did a third lap together.

So on the fourth lap, when the car in front turned down a narrow street, I followed, unwilling to be alone. The sign warned 1.80m restriction.

And so it was slow progress with twists and turns between the unforgiving walls of houses. The car in front folded its wing mirrors in 3 times, and once had to reverse to manage a left turn. I began to be glad I had a Nissan Micra! All this time, there was no option but to continue.

At last my GPS worked out where I was and announced a right at the next junction. I saw a taxi cross from our left and take the indicated road. My "guide car" went straight on into more narrow lanes. I finally parted company.

And so it was easy for a while. The country roads to the lake understandably small but ok. I reached a bridge with lots of cars stopped and people enjoying the water, and I stopped for a while but I had planned another location so I carried on.

Picture of the sort of terrain - actually from the next day that
was intended to be "safe". I had followed a tourist sign but the
road was anything but "safe", and always a long way from home!

By now the lane was one car wide and twisty as a snake. But I met no one and the valley was picturesque. At last I came to the point I had found, and it turned out to be a hydro-electric dam.

After taking photos and admiring the lake created by the dam, I drove over it to find a poor steep road as the only way out. I programmed the GPS who announced a return over the dam.

I began to contemplate the narrow snakey road when the GPS lady said " left". It was not the best road I had seen, but worth a try.

It was potholed and sometimes steep but ok. Then it became narrower but at last reached a wider road that we joined. However it was not long before that road turned left and my lady said "right".

I had to look to find the right turn. "That?" I thought. But the last had been ok and I could end up miles out of my way otherwise. I took the plunge.

One of the better bits of road.
Otherwise I had both hands of the steering wheel.

My road soon turned to an earth road. Rutted at times but clearly people lived down here. I reach a drive and the road, what there was of it, turned left. Impossible to return, I followed on. It got no better but I had passed a house.

Now if I owned a house there I would chosen a 4-wheel drive LandRover and I would keep a spade and those things for under the wheels in it at all times. And spare fuel, drinking water and a short wave radio able to call the mountain rescue. Not chose a Nissan Micra and an SLR camera.

I turned a corner. The dirt track made its rutted way steeply down and appeared to end in a dry river bed. I could see that it continued out of the river, which was not wide, on the other side. "As long as it does not go up like it is going down I'll be ok" I thought. With little option I descended in as controlled a way as I could. The car bumped up out of the other side of the river bed as if it was built to do so. So far so good.

No hills challenged the progress which was still narrow and rutted, then suddenly there was a wider metalled stretch. And then: we'll I could see the main road. And someone had helpfully thrown some road stone onto the hill to show the way down. At the bottom it joined a road that had white lines and signage! I descended. Civilisation at last and only another hour to home!

But all praise to the Micra which took it all in its stride!

As for which was the most challenging, I am not sure if it was the never-ending lanes of Córdoba, or the muddy descent to the riverbed. 

But on reflection, I think the riverbed just has the edge.

Cordialement
Terry

Envoyé de mon iPhone
Et mal à ça! - when I read this blog I found half of it missing. Fixed now. You needed to know how it ended!