![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I have a loaner while my car is being serviced. It's a Datsun Sunny, manual choke (fun!), no radio (not even AM?!?), takes an age to accelerate. Oh and it's red. I need to remember that so I can find it again when I venture into the car park.
We changed the cars over last night, which entailed driving up to Dean's parents place. I get my car serviced at the place around the corner from Dean's parents for two reasons - they give me a loaner while it's being serviced and I can drop the car off and pick it up at odd hours and Dean's parents/the guy from the garage will do the working hours exchanges.
So after netball last night we hit Plenty Rd and headed north.
Into fog.
It was the thickest fog I've ever seen. We had visibility down to 1.5m at one stage. It felt like driving through an opaque blanket. The road is 100kph speed limit, my little convoy (with myself at the front) weren't getting over 60 because we just could not see. I spent the entire drive up following the line on the side of the road - as long as I was near it but to the right I'd be OK. No one was game to overtake - in fact I think no one behind me wanted to overtake because they were just following my lights into oblivion.
Stock? Roos? Forget it, we wouldn't see them until we collided.
Dean knows the road very well, so he gave me a running commentary on what should be coming up:
"Brake! There's a roundabout just ahead."
What looked like a light (but turned out to be a sign reflecting back at me) loomed up and then vanished. We went carefully around the roundabout, losing one of the convoy along the way. Oncoming traffic became visible at about 10m, only as pricks of light that looked remarkably like road signs. I dipped my high beams (I tried both high and low and found that high gave me about half a metre more visibility: both were roughly equal in terms of reflecting light back at me), and realised that they were doing the same.. and it was making no difference. The lights behind me were also muted, no dazzling reflections in the rearview mirror.
"There should be a bridge... and then the road starts veering to the left. Not now, that's a side road, just keep straight.. there's the line again."
My little convoy all started to follow the line around the corner too, then corrected as they realised.
We reached Dean's parents' town and moved into a world of strange overhead lights that accentuated the fog above and around us, but at least gave us a clear idea of where the road was.
Found Dean's father, swapped over the cars, talked about the fog. It took about half an hour.
Dean drove home. In that space of time a breeze had sprung up from the north, visibility had increased and we were up to 4-5m. By the time we reached Bundoora it was clear.
We changed the cars over last night, which entailed driving up to Dean's parents place. I get my car serviced at the place around the corner from Dean's parents for two reasons - they give me a loaner while it's being serviced and I can drop the car off and pick it up at odd hours and Dean's parents/the guy from the garage will do the working hours exchanges.
So after netball last night we hit Plenty Rd and headed north.
Into fog.
It was the thickest fog I've ever seen. We had visibility down to 1.5m at one stage. It felt like driving through an opaque blanket. The road is 100kph speed limit, my little convoy (with myself at the front) weren't getting over 60 because we just could not see. I spent the entire drive up following the line on the side of the road - as long as I was near it but to the right I'd be OK. No one was game to overtake - in fact I think no one behind me wanted to overtake because they were just following my lights into oblivion.
Stock? Roos? Forget it, we wouldn't see them until we collided.
Dean knows the road very well, so he gave me a running commentary on what should be coming up:
"Brake! There's a roundabout just ahead."
What looked like a light (but turned out to be a sign reflecting back at me) loomed up and then vanished. We went carefully around the roundabout, losing one of the convoy along the way. Oncoming traffic became visible at about 10m, only as pricks of light that looked remarkably like road signs. I dipped my high beams (I tried both high and low and found that high gave me about half a metre more visibility: both were roughly equal in terms of reflecting light back at me), and realised that they were doing the same.. and it was making no difference. The lights behind me were also muted, no dazzling reflections in the rearview mirror.
"There should be a bridge... and then the road starts veering to the left. Not now, that's a side road, just keep straight.. there's the line again."
My little convoy all started to follow the line around the corner too, then corrected as they realised.
We reached Dean's parents' town and moved into a world of strange overhead lights that accentuated the fog above and around us, but at least gave us a clear idea of where the road was.
Found Dean's father, swapped over the cars, talked about the fog. It took about half an hour.
Dean drove home. In that space of time a breeze had sprung up from the north, visibility had increased and we were up to 4-5m. By the time we reached Bundoora it was clear.
