Driving the Breadth of England

We were driving today from Salisbury to St. Ives. It doesn't look that far on a map but it took all day. We couldn't do much of the route on the motorway so we were poking along on "A" roads and even "B" roads. It is very harrowing on these narrow roads, particularly with the constant roundabouts. The Sat-Nav (GPS) generally works well. It announces the roundabout and which turn off to take. It gives the names of the roads involved but in reality there are no signs for the road names. You have to align your lane position heading into the roundabout with the order of your exit. For example: left lane for the first or second turnoff, middle lane for the 3rd exit, right lane for the 4th exit. Or there may not be more than one lane and then it is bit of a free-for-all. This driving and decision making has to be done superfast and constantly. Sometimes the roundabouts come directly after one another as on the road to Exeter. We got stuck there in roundabout hell for a while.


To get a bit of a break I suggested we take a diversion to see the ruins of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table castle in Tintagel. Taking a break like this is a double edged sword (so to speak). It's nice to stop driving and walk around for a bit but the tiny roads make accessing the place a challenge.

Remaining stone wall of a room

By about 6:30 pm we made it to St. Ives. We even found parking on the side of the road near our lodgings which was a blessing because the roads are extremely narrow, congested and hilly and parking is almost non-existent.

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