We left our beautiful parkup overlooking a reservoir and headed for a filling station that has LPG on tap. We’re not desperate to fill up but we’ve learned to take advantage of services when they’re nearby and convenient. Google maps predicted a fairly direct 17 minute drive.
We turned onto a narrow road with a sign warning “Not suitable for longer vehicles.” We don’t consider our van very long and the sign didn’t specify any particular length.
As we entered the road, Jack said he saw another, smaller sign that said “Don’t follow SatNav, you’ll get stuck.” I didn’t see that sign, but as we drove a few meters the road looked more and more dodgy.
“Stop!” I said. “I don’t think we can go there.” Jack was game, but I insisted he back out and after a vigorous discussion he agreed and backed out onto the street we’d turned from. We didn’t know which way to go. Google maps indicated the narrow road as our only option to get to our destination.
“Wait here.” I said, and I looked around to find some local knowledge. There was no one about. The pub across the street looked like it might be open. I ran over and as I entered, six people turned to face the door. One woman gave me the local greeting, “Yahrite?”
“No!” I answered, an inappropriate response that garnered confusion. “I’m in a campervan and Google maps wants us to go down that street,” I explained, pointing toward the skinny road.
“DON’T GO THERE!” they all shouted in unison. A man asked where we were going, then said he’d show me how to get there. He walked me outside and with a combination of pointing this way and that, then showing me on my phone, he gave elaborate directions to get to a place that seemed so close, but was going to take a bit of savvy navigating to get there. At one point he had us going way west of our destination, but when I protested he said, “Trust me, this is the only way to get there.”
He told me the skinny road would have been ok for awhile, maybe even over the very narrow bridge.
At the bottom of the hill there’s a turn that we wouldn’t be able to make, he told us, and everyone gets stuck. It’s a narrow, tight, steep hairpin that a long wheelbase can’t manage. That’s us. We would have bottomed out.
“There’s a farmer down there who charges 200 quid to pull you out.” Apparently he rescues 2 or 3 vehicles a week whose drivers ignore the sign on the fence at the turnoff, like we almost did.
I repeated the directions twice to make sure I had it right and then we were off.
The directions were spot on.
After miles of twisty one-lane roads and a construction detour, we finally reached our service station and filled up the LPG tanks.
It’s not unusual to get the “Don’t follow SatNav” warning from businesses or campsites or even the apps we use to find parkups. Google Maps wants to send you on what it thinks is the most efficient way, but apparently their programming can’t evaluate the suitability of a road for vehicles when suggesting a route. I consult several different mapping and navigation apps now. Most of the time.