Getting Lost

by Matthew Hall

Two weekends, two trips up north to see relatives. Sat nav fired up, the second journey went without incident on endless miles of motorway.

The second trip- less straightforward. A turning was missed and we were sent further and further into a high altitude pass snaking through the countryside on a winding narrow road with a spectacular drop on one side One sneeze and we would have been flying. Any wind was making it difficult to stay on track, but at least I wasn’t in an HGV.

The countryside was beautiful, and the remoteness unexpected. Eventually we saw a reservoir, so it was good to know that we were not the first humans ever to have gone across that moor.

For all the scenery, difficult to take in properly, it was a tremendous relief to see somewhere flat enough for a scattering of stone houses. Slowly the road broadened out, and at last we were at a town miles from where we were supposed to be going. At this, the sat nav came to its senses, and the journey lost all its excitement.

Looking back on it now, it will be the second journey that I will remember, for all its scariness. If we hadn’t missed that turn we would never have voluntarily driven out to that bleak part of the world, and we would definitely have missed out. So next time someone tells me to get lost, I won’t take it as the insult that is intended.

Incidentally, if you want to see pictures of lorries that have blown over, you could search for the A628 Woodhead Pass.