No this isn't me moaning about a near miss or anything. I live in a small rural town in the heart of dairy farming country, it's a pretty landscape around here and many of the roads are narrow two lane affairs with a lot of dips and twists and turns. Throw in a few narrow bridges approached from blind angles as well as farm machinery and stock movements on the roads and it's a case of knowing the road as well as keep your speed down that gets you home safe and sound.
There is also a road that runs through a long winding narrow gorge beside a river that can get pretty darn deep and wild in wet weather. It's breathtakingly beautiful through the gorge, but it's a road that need to be respected as it's narrow with a lot of tight turns and blind corners and the road surface is often wet due to the presence of water seepage from tiny springs high above the road. The gorge road in particular has a good many warning signs about the road conditions and there is a special speed restriction on the gorge road as well.
Last Sunday I was working around the garage and carport at home, it was a fine day and there was a fair bit of out of town daytripper traffic going past on the road outside my front gate. The St. John Ambulance depot and the Fire Station are both reasonably close to where I live and I'll tell you I lost count of how many times the ambulance and the fire service guys went past my gate with their lights and sirens going while heading for the gorge road. I heard them go out a couple of time in the other direction as well, but most of the action was on the gorge road this time around.
The simple fact is people driving cars don't pay any attention to any of the warning signs and drive much too fast. The open road speed limit here in New Zealand is 100kph, and as most drivers in their hi-tech tin-tops with ABS and computer controlled anti-roll systems and goodness knows what else think that they can add around another 15-20kph onto the speed limit it makes for a disaster waiting to happen. I drive a 1977 Datsun that's in nice original condition and when I'm driving on the roads around here I keep my speed down and my eyes open because I know the roads. I know I'm fast moving into old lady territory and that when out of towners see me driving my older model motorcar at sensible speeds they more than likely grit their teeth and itch to pass me as soon as they possibly can. But what for? Perhaps it is because I'm 58 that I've learned to enjoy the journey and not be in a mad rush to get to a destination all the time.
When i was younger I did my time with tuned up cars and sidecar outfits & etc, but seems that even the most hopped up Austin I ever tuned and modded would be considered an absolute slow poke compared with the factory standard state of tune the latest offerings from the showroom floor. Compared with the type of second hand cars my friends and i could buy when we first started driving the kids these days are getting their hands on vehicles that can go waaay faster than anything we used to have. We might not have had any more commonsense than kids today, but at least we couldn't buy anything fast enough to kill ourselves with.
Do you want a laugh? I found a 12 year old photo of myself at a friend's place back when my doctor would still permit me to ride a motorcycle. It was a 500 twin Suzuki and it was such a sweet ride .......... (sniff)
There is also a road that runs through a long winding narrow gorge beside a river that can get pretty darn deep and wild in wet weather. It's breathtakingly beautiful through the gorge, but it's a road that need to be respected as it's narrow with a lot of tight turns and blind corners and the road surface is often wet due to the presence of water seepage from tiny springs high above the road. The gorge road in particular has a good many warning signs about the road conditions and there is a special speed restriction on the gorge road as well.
Last Sunday I was working around the garage and carport at home, it was a fine day and there was a fair bit of out of town daytripper traffic going past on the road outside my front gate. The St. John Ambulance depot and the Fire Station are both reasonably close to where I live and I'll tell you I lost count of how many times the ambulance and the fire service guys went past my gate with their lights and sirens going while heading for the gorge road. I heard them go out a couple of time in the other direction as well, but most of the action was on the gorge road this time around.
The simple fact is people driving cars don't pay any attention to any of the warning signs and drive much too fast. The open road speed limit here in New Zealand is 100kph, and as most drivers in their hi-tech tin-tops with ABS and computer controlled anti-roll systems and goodness knows what else think that they can add around another 15-20kph onto the speed limit it makes for a disaster waiting to happen. I drive a 1977 Datsun that's in nice original condition and when I'm driving on the roads around here I keep my speed down and my eyes open because I know the roads. I know I'm fast moving into old lady territory and that when out of towners see me driving my older model motorcar at sensible speeds they more than likely grit their teeth and itch to pass me as soon as they possibly can. But what for? Perhaps it is because I'm 58 that I've learned to enjoy the journey and not be in a mad rush to get to a destination all the time.
When i was younger I did my time with tuned up cars and sidecar outfits & etc, but seems that even the most hopped up Austin I ever tuned and modded would be considered an absolute slow poke compared with the factory standard state of tune the latest offerings from the showroom floor. Compared with the type of second hand cars my friends and i could buy when we first started driving the kids these days are getting their hands on vehicles that can go waaay faster than anything we used to have. We might not have had any more commonsense than kids today, but at least we couldn't buy anything fast enough to kill ourselves with.
Do you want a laugh? I found a 12 year old photo of myself at a friend's place back when my doctor would still permit me to ride a motorcycle. It was a 500 twin Suzuki and it was such a sweet ride .......... (sniff)
