Driving in Kent

Observations while on my many dates with Ken, who I've discovered has very little to say unless we're driving somewhere. Not sure if this relationship is going anywhere...

This is one of the 'main roads' on my way to work.

Blind corner ahead. My daily commute to work.

Calculation: width of most roads in Kent = width of 2 cars, minus their side mirrors. Probably should have taken up the hire car’s collision damage waiver. Some roads don’t even pretend to cater for two way traffic, which means that only one car can pass at a time. So if you’re coming in the opposite direction, you have to pull over into the field. Conveniently, there are ‘pull over’ points every 20 metres or so. Not sure why they don’t just join all the pull over points together and have a wider road in the first place...

Another main road.

The brown area is the pull over point so a car in the opposite direction can pass.

Intersection. I can't tell when to go because I'm next to the traffic light!

During my half an hour trip to work, there are only two sets of traffic lights, and both of them are within 2 minutes of leaving the hospital. The entire trip is either open highway or single-car-width country roads. The English traffic lights are quite unusual, in that traffic lights are only placed on the same side of the intersection you’re on. So if you’re the first car stopped at the lights, you don’t really know when it’s ok to go, unless you crane your neck or look out of your window. 

A traffic light about to turn green.

Traffic lights also momentarily turn orange before they turn green. No idea why. Cars seem to start to rev during this process, much like at the starting line of a rally. As a result, every time I’m waiting at a red light, when it turns yellow I feel like a racing car driver and am compelled to yell, “ready... set... GO!”.

Harvest. Luckily, this guy was on the highway so that I could overtake him before he covered my car in hay.

The later you are to leave for work, the higher the likelihood that you’ll be behind a tractor on a single lane highway.

Road kill so far has existed of foxes and badgers. I’m a little saddened that animals from childhood storybooks are flattened by the cars. No pics of this, sorry...

When driving over railway tracks, be mindful that these tracks are used by the High Speed trains travelling at speeds of up to 230kph. My daily ritual is to wait until the car/tractor/horse drawn gypsy van in front of me has cleared the intersection, approach the tracks carefully, shut my eyes (yes, while driving – I don’t want to see my imminent death coming at me at 230kph), and do a little high pitched scream while driving across the tracks. I figure if the signals are broken and I’m hit by a train, at least I’ll have gone down with the appropriate vocal response.

That blur is a high speed train travelling at 230kph in front of the cars. A little bit of wee just came out.

So, seeing tractors harvesting whatever is being grown right next to my car, watching leaves turn browner by the week, and feeling like I'm on a road trip twice a day makes for a much more pleasant arrival to work than I was used to in Sydney.