The U Turn at Jamieson

[Chris]

Those on the Mt Skene trip in July will know about this one.

It was one of those days where a chain of events leads to an embarassing incident.  In this case, it could have been dangerous as well.

It was the Sunday, we'd all had a big night watching the rugby; the one we lost to South Africa.  Unfortunately, we had a couple of South Africans with us in the unit, and they wanted to see every agonising moment.  The result was a very late night (or early morning).
At about 8:30 I got out of bed, and realised we had one hour to get dressed, have breakfast, pack the vehicle and meet at the the pub for a 9:30 departure.  We made it by about 9:40, but my tyres were still down at 10psi from the night run - no way I was going to go out on the road like that!  When I had eventually aired up, and our guests had fuelled up, we headed off in pursuit of Lawrence, who was waiting at the first turn off.  At this stage we were in radio contact ( I had a handheld).  We headed off down the road expecting to see Lawrence just 'round the next corner.  Then I heard him on the radio and realised I'd headed off in the WRONG DIRECTION.  Did a quick check in the mirrors; nothing coming; slowed, down and commenced the U-turn.  Unfortunately, the shoulder on the opposite side reduced dramatically at exactly the point I chose to execute the turn.

The result was me sitting off the side of the road, at about a 30 deg side lean, with not enough traction to retrieve the situation.  Our friends (driving a RAV 4) kindly offered to pull me out - I declined.  Instead, I request they head back to get into radio contact with Lawrence.  Eventually he arrived, and was able to pull me back on to the black top safely.

A few valuable lessons learned there I think.  Oh, and I believe there's photographic evidence out there somewhere as well !!

Chris