5th March 25. Getting home x3

Not a work day today. Just driving home with the BMW 318i convertible I had bought a few weeks ago and drove it up to Carlisle to get to a family event.

It had been stored in the secure and dry parking at the family home since. In the back of my mind this was always a way back south if any good jobs driving to Scotland came up. Driving up there is such a pleasure and a great change to the driving in the south. Obviously the scenery is usually always amazing. It's quieter, generally. And the road surface is usually great.

Having moved to Scotland as a child and grown up there. My early years of driving were amazing. I count myself very lucky in many ways.

Firstly being able to drive these roads in a different era. One where there was little or no traffic around and you could literally race around and learn to drive properly. Learning how a car handled, and how to drive one on the limit. Something that is impossible now.

Secondly, I am probably, (see above) Lucky to be alive. Driving on that limit, led to many hairy moments and thank God only two minor accidents. One was completely someone else's fault. Obviously.

Driving a 1973 BMW 3.0l saloon. In regulation 70s brown. A car, my father had only just bought. Driving home with a friend from a night out. He told me the upcoming corner on the A75 between Dumfries and Castle Douglas was able to be taken flat out. Or at least around 95-100 MPH. I listened. He was wrong.

We ended up in a field next to a Loch after sliding sideways and collecting a dozen or so concrete fence posts and the attached metal wire. Those days there were no mobile phones of course and my sister was waiting for a lift home to the very small village we lived in on the Solway coast from a town close by, Dalbeattie.

Do not ask me how. But I managed to get the car out of the field. Running on four of the six cylinders and not much of the front end left. No headlights, pitch black dark. But cajoled and nursed the car towards Castle Douglas. Where my friend jumped out and abandoned me. (I actually haven't seen him since)

I got to Dalbeattie. My sister freezing to death at the town hall waiting for me in her teenage disco gear.

How I got the car home with my sister and through the forthcoming anger from my father over the next few years. My mind must have blocked out.

The second accident about 6 years later. Was driving one of my many Lancia Fulvia coupe's 1.3's

I loved these cars. 4 cylinder V4 engine's under the same cylinder head so a narrow V . A dog-leg 5 speed gearbox with first left and back. Great fun and the accident was one of those. 'Always going to happen' events.

Rounding the Quarry bend near Dalbeattie in the wet . It let go. Sliding happily along sideways until a drainage dug out, caught the rear wheel and flipped the car over and rolled twice. Oops

Again God had a higher purpose for me and I was able, after the car landing on its wheels. Drive it home. Albeit the roofline had altered slightly. Thank you again God. I really do owe you.

This corner had taken a few lives in it's time as there is a long drop a few metres away. if you are unlucky. I remember a boy at school losing his life on this corner. I can say that this did however slow me down and make me realise that driving quickly on the road is a mugs game for many reasons. Although this realisation didn't kick in immediately. It took about 40 years.

The drive back to Aylesbury from Carlisle was thankfully not as eventful as the incidents above and the car drove faultlessly and comfortably to arrive home stress free and ready to relax before tomorrow's adventure.

Apologies for the stock images of the BMW and Lancia. But all photos of those days are lost 😔