Having just passed my test (many years ago) I went on holiday to Devon. Going up a narrowish hill I met a milk lorry coming the other way. I pressed into the bushes on the left and it passed safely. Unfortunately, instead of the nice soft hedge I had thought was there, it had just been "hedged" and consisted of sharp branch ends and the side of the car was covered by about 20 parallel scrapes. In the end we (my father anyway) had to have the car resprayed.
I just drove down similar roads on the southern edge of Dartmoor an hour ago, my wife left her bag on the top of the car when we stopped for a comfort break for the dog. Amazingly, we retraced our route and found it!
Yes indeed it's tricky and sometimes inconvenient to drive on those narrow roads and country lanes but the views and beauty of English and Welsh countryside is well worth it. I can't wait to go back there again.
I've come to this late but would advise anyone to get a really good road atlas and look at. That way you can get an overview of everything else like views, tourist attractions etc and adjust your route.
It always amazed me the number of times visitors to Oxford for Unipart endedup on Oxford Business park ( the wrong side of the ring road.) Something like nearly a mile away. That's from a Tom Tom sat nav. Just as a matter of interest i tried it with my Garmin and it took me straight to the building. Just goes to show that a lot depends on the dayabase used in the device. I think modern factory installed ones are a little more consistent but it still doesn't preclude situations like that
Your driving videos is the reason I started following you guys. I can never get enough driving tips for the UK. I watch the motorcycle rider/adventure itchy boots. Some of the off-road wilderness drives that her GPS aka satnav sends her on is unbelievable.
You just have to slow down or if it's a really tight corner on a small lane, use the horn as a warning. Luckily, you only get onto these roads in the country when Google Maps send you the most awkward route
Another tip: drive with the driver side window down as this could give you an audible warning of approaching traffic. But also a highway code rule is to drive at a speed that you can stop within the distance seen to be clear. So as said above slow down when negotiating bends.
Been there done that Marcus, on the way to a campsite in Cullompton, with my caravan, satnav told me to turn right , ended up bogged down in a farmyard😊
Are you going to visit anywhere in Somerset? Would love to see Yeovil and around that area as mentioned me thinks? My heritage is from Yeovil/Martock/Odcombe...thanks for showing UK and beyond...Wales etc...Yes have Welsh ancestors too...I probably will not get to UK now at all so love your vlogs/videos...big hugs from NZ
Any words of wisom? Marcus, get a drone so Mel can fly it above the car and tell you of cars coming down the road. Plus you'll get some great B roll, and if you crash you can blame the navigator. 🤐
60 mph limit not ridiculous its called freedom and not having to worry about going over as rare you get the chance, fast car what stop very fast may be able to hit 60 small straight and be at a speed they can stop at before they get to corner. drive as fast as far as you see ahead to be clear, more open less dangers like drive ways, entrances, hidden junctions, walking paths. key thing be at a speed you can stop before you get to corner and if road allows so not to bumpy and road surface not so bad and non the dangers i mentioned above and you can see far enough ahead to do 60 and then get back down to speed you can stop before next hazard then is very safe to do that on these roads. over 90% my driving is on A & B roads, a 7 hour drive 180 miles through wales that trip vary's 7-12 hours 170-190miles had average speed for a day drive nearly all driving was 24mph, so see 60 limit and road and conditions allow i prob in 2nd so i use all 2nd gear get to about 50-60 and as being in low gear great engine braking to so not to over heat brakes last longer before brake fade. key thing be at a speed you can stop so corner you can not see around junctions, driveways and entrances, people, bikers and also weather , if tick all boxes you can make progress and it is safe to do so even if it is only wide as a car . another tip test the braking grip levels as surfaces change so you know space you need to stop in that helps pick your speed, slower car you might not ever get to 60 before needing to slow for corner and some corners you at walking pace if that, key thing roads like that window down so listen for horn, and also beep your horn as you get to corner it may give someone else or yourself extra time to stop, pre warning. horn very useful as ive slowed cars down just in time as they already hard brakes before they could see me and i was at about walking pace so stopped on spot the van driver was going way to fast for corner and horn alerted him just in time but you stick to what i said above it is safe to get up to or close to 60 as long you are slow before next hazard or corner. but making progress on these roads expect use more fuel and for maintenance, esp for brakes and suspension and tires as they get hard use at times so if you getting the most safely out these roads you may over heat disks make warp , use pads faster so good maintenance is also key to driving to conditions
Those are great motorcycling roads, not so good for cars. There was even one like an Irish track with grass down the middle. But unlike @ItchyBoots I wouldn't ride through the flooded bit.
@@flydriveexplore I can’t believe those roads. Scary ride for sure. I was trying to figure out why the driver of that car put himself in that position in the middle of all that water.
@@lcook0825 That road is tidal, it does clear when the tide goes out. Although, I was told by a local that the road itself is full of potholes and it's quite easy to get stuck if you are trying to cross when it's shallow. That car probably got stuck and the tide came in.
Horses and cows on Dartmoor too, most of our national parks have horses, also Dartmoor, Exmoor and bodmin Moor have " beasts" afew years ago the British army deployed soldiers on Exmoor to hunt is beast but never found it.
I recently visited Lake District (Cumbria) and SW Wales (Pembrokeshire area). I agree with you that those are some of the narrowest roads in the world. I am from the US and I can't understand why on earth you guys keep them so narrow? They are extremely dangerous and not user friendly in any way. Is there a logic behind it? Some of those country lanes don't even have any areas to squeeze into so that another car coming from the opposite direction could pass. Many a times one of the cars has to back up. It's bonkers!! I don't understand!!!
The roads have been there for hundreds of years, some cases longer. The local farmers and residents probably don't want their land used for road widening.
They are even more extreme in Devon and Cornwall. They were never intended for vehicles, they were used by pack horses, at least that is the case in the West Country. Most heavy goods were moved along the coast and up the rivers until the railways were built. They generally don't carry a lot of traffic and the land is more valuable than the inconvenience of using them. As an aside, the West Country hedgerows are just the prettiest sight imaginable in late Spring and they are also very important for wildlife, it would be almost impossible to get them widened, some of the flora and fauna is protected by legislation. Just working close by a colony of bats would take months of planning and approvals, realigning or widening a road could take years of written submissions and permission is quite likely to be refused. I don't enjoy driving along them and agree that they are not 'user friendly' but they have been there for a long time and are part of the landscape. In many ways they are more of a hazard for pedestrians as you are entirely reliant on the good road sense of drivers if you choose to walk along them.
The roads weren't designed for modern traffic conditions, they're what farmers would have used to take animals and produce to market. They have ancient hedgerows which are home to all sorts of wildlife and plants, and border farmland.
What's even more amazing is that the U S army did most of their training here prior to the d day landings , then we're totally unprepared for the bocage in Normandy which is identical to Devon
Because the Local Authority don't own the land either side of these roads - the land is privately owned by farmers, and other land owners. A road will often form the boundary of land ownership. Land on one side of it will often be owned by a different person than land on the other side. For this reason you can't just simply widen the road. Plus the hedgerows will likely have 'protected status' and can't be 'unprotected' because they may bound up in laws - laws which are complex and many. Besides, why would anyone want to widen these roads? They're historic, but also valuable nature corridors (the hedgerows). It's the cars that need to shrink, not the roads that need to widen. Cars today are too big, and maybe it's time cars started getting smaller again? Just my view......though many will no doubt disagree with me.
I know What Sat Navs are like Marcus they are swines for taking you on the back roads and not on the "Good Roads" spose we have to grin and bare it! :-)
I know they have options to 'avoid tolls' etc but do SatNavs/GoogleMaps have an option for best 'suitable road', where you don't need a canoe to travel along it.
Look you are more than ok going down county lanes provided you know how to drive. The most annoying thing is when a woman on holiday in her big BMW SUV doesn't know how to reverse or drive for that matter and expects you to reverse your tractor and trailer!!!! If you don't know how to use the roads I urge you not to drive down them.
No, the most annoying thing is when a Know-It-All MAN leaves sexist comments. (Women are much safer drivers than men. That's why we have lower insurance rates. Suck it, dude. )
You will but Devon lanes are fairly unique because not only are they narrow they usually have high hedges or banks on either side. Apart from Northern Ireland I've driven all over the UK and Devon and Cornwall lanes are something else.
Fortunately I never had any problems with my sat-nav when I visited the UK, but MAN, those single-lane roads were something else! 😄
Luckily we didn't have to reverse up the lanes which can often happen when you meet a tractor.
I'm from Devon, most of us can reverse as easy as going forward.
Having just passed my test (many years ago) I went on holiday to Devon. Going up a narrowish hill I met a milk lorry coming the other way. I pressed into the bushes on the left and it passed safely. Unfortunately, instead of the nice soft hedge I had thought was there, it had just been "hedged" and consisted of sharp branch ends and the side of the car was covered by about 20 parallel scrapes. In the end we (my father anyway) had to have the car resprayed.
I just drove down similar roads on the southern edge of Dartmoor an hour ago, my wife left her bag on the top of the car when we stopped for a comfort break for the dog. Amazingly, we retraced our route and found it!
Yes indeed it's tricky and sometimes inconvenient to drive on those narrow roads and country lanes but the views and beauty of English and Welsh countryside is well worth it. I can't wait to go back there again.
Our narrow lanes are tricky down here for tourists and people who just don’t know back roads around and across the moors.
Stay off the moors lads. 🐺
I've come to this late but would advise anyone to get a really good road atlas and look at. That way you can get an overview of everything else like views, tourist attractions etc and adjust your route.
Well at least for 95% of that the issue about driving on the left / right was a mute one.
Very entertaining thanks.
Awesome live video view I enjoyed it. Can't wait to see more soon. Have a great day greetings from Canada 😀 see you next video CHEERS
Thank you!
It always amazed me the number of times visitors to Oxford for Unipart endedup on Oxford Business park ( the wrong side of the ring road.) Something like nearly a mile away. That's from a Tom Tom sat nav. Just as a matter of interest i tried it with my Garmin and it took me straight to the building.
Just goes to show that a lot depends on the dayabase used in the device. I think modern factory installed ones are a little more consistent but it still doesn't preclude situations like that
Nightmare. Gave me flash backs to when i towed my caravan down to Llanmadoc in the Beautiful Gower. 🙈
Luckily we didn't encounter anything bigger than a van.
Your driving videos is the reason I started following you guys. I can never get enough driving tips for the UK. I watch the motorcycle rider/adventure itchy boots. Some of the off-road wilderness drives that her GPS aka satnav sends her on is unbelievable.
@@NewCastleIndiana Cheers, we will try and do some more over the winter.
Llanmadoc is not far from me either!
What village are you in @ 3:40? It's so pretty!!
That was the little village of Ringmore, South Devon
tidal roads you can pass but at low tide only so have to check tide times
We have to let google maps know the times. Saying that, I was talking to a local who said the that road itself is very bad and full of deep potholes.
You mentioned the blind corners while on the narrow country road. How do you handle those? How do you know if an oncoming car is coming?
You just have to slow down or if it's a really tight corner on a small lane, use the horn as a warning. Luckily, you only get onto these roads in the country when Google Maps send you the most awkward route
@@flydriveexplore Thank you. I will be out in the country, so I am a little nervous. 😬
@@spiritualtraveler Don't worry, it's not that bad and the lanes in the video are some of the narrowest. You'll quickly get used to it.
Another tip: drive with the driver side window down as this could give you an audible warning of approaching traffic. But also a highway code rule is to drive at a speed that you can stop within the distance seen to be clear. So as said above slow down when negotiating bends.
Please leave the horn alone, its very annoying if you live there.
Just slow down and anticipate.
Been there done that Marcus, on the way to a campsite in Cullompton, with my caravan, satnav told me to turn right , ended up bogged down in a farmyard😊
Luckily, it was just us. I don't know how they deliver those big static caravans to the site.
Are you going to visit anywhere in Somerset? Would love to see Yeovil and around that area as mentioned me thinks? My heritage is from Yeovil/Martock/Odcombe...thanks for showing UK and beyond...Wales etc...Yes have Welsh ancestors too...I probably will not get to UK now at all so love your vlogs/videos...big hugs from NZ
We may do, no plans yet but it's not that far away from us.
Any words of wisom? Marcus, get a drone so Mel can fly it above the car and tell you of cars coming down the road. Plus you'll get some great B roll, and if you crash you can blame the navigator. 🤐
Yep, she'll probably be following the wrong car.
I live in Devon. So we have to deal with this daily including tractors etc
60 mph limit not ridiculous its called freedom and not having to worry about going over as rare you get the chance, fast car what stop very fast may be able to hit 60 small straight and be at a speed they can stop at before they get to corner. drive as fast as far as you see ahead to be clear, more open less dangers like drive ways, entrances, hidden junctions, walking paths. key thing be at a speed you can stop before you get to corner and if road allows so not to bumpy and road surface not so bad and non the dangers i mentioned above and you can see far enough ahead to do 60 and then get back down to speed you can stop before next hazard then is very safe to do that on these roads. over 90% my driving is on A & B roads, a 7 hour drive 180 miles through wales that trip vary's 7-12 hours 170-190miles had average speed for a day drive nearly all driving was 24mph, so see 60 limit and road and conditions allow i prob in 2nd so i use all 2nd gear get to about 50-60 and as being in low gear great engine braking to so not to over heat brakes last longer before brake fade. key thing be at a speed you can stop so corner you can not see around junctions, driveways and entrances, people, bikers and also weather , if tick all boxes you can make progress and it is safe to do so even if it is only wide as a car . another tip test the braking grip levels as surfaces change so you know space you need to stop in that helps pick your speed, slower car you might not ever get to 60 before needing to slow for corner and some corners you at walking pace if that, key thing roads like that window down so listen for horn, and also beep your horn as you get to corner it may give someone else or yourself extra time to stop, pre warning. horn very useful as ive slowed cars down just in time as they already hard brakes before they could see me and i was at about walking pace so stopped on spot the van driver was going way to fast for corner and horn alerted him just in time but you stick to what i said above it is safe to get up to or close to 60 as long you are slow before next hazard or corner. but making progress on these roads expect use more fuel and for maintenance, esp for brakes and suspension and tires as they get hard use at times so if you getting the most safely out these roads you may over heat disks make warp , use pads faster so good maintenance is also key to driving to conditions
Which holiday park were you staying at? The nearby beach looks amazing.
Parkdean on Challaborough Bay
S, Devon is my area 👍 hope you found Salcombe ? Lovely place off to Caernarfon/Trefor for a week tomorrow
@@keithvirgin771 Yep, we found it in the end. 👍
@@flydriveexplore Thank you. Much appreciated.
I trusted my works sat nav, I got a showing fine because I believed it was telling me the right speed limits.
Used to use such lanes at night delivering stuff winter is definitely not fun
Large van just about fitted down some of the tracks to houses etc
Yep, must be bad, especially in the dark and during bad weather.
It's easier at night because you can see the other cars headlights from miles away ish
If your not very good at reversing you soon learn and on a wet day the hedges will wash the sides of the car
Those are great motorcycling roads, not so good for cars. There was even one like an Irish track with grass down the middle. But unlike @ItchyBoots I wouldn't ride through the flooded bit.
I will be driving in Abergavenny, that should be okay
Try delivering in a van on them roads . Squeaky bum time
Hi Marcus and Mel.
Hello
@@flydriveexplore I can’t believe those roads. Scary ride for sure. I was trying to figure out why the driver of that car put himself in that position in the middle of all that water.
@@lcook0825 That road is tidal, it does clear when the tide goes out. Although, I was told by a local that the road itself is full of potholes and it's quite easy to get stuck if you are trying to cross when it's shallow. That car probably got stuck and the tide came in.
Did You Know There Are More Roads In Devon (Most Of Then Just Like The Ones You Have Driven) Than Any Other County In The UK
Didn't know that.
Love your videos! Helpful! Do you have bears in UK? What wildlife might jump in the road??
No bears. Foxes, badgers, sheep (especially in Wales) and deer.
Horses and cows on Dartmoor too, most of our national parks have horses, also Dartmoor, Exmoor and bodmin Moor have " beasts" afew years ago the British army deployed soldiers on Exmoor to hunt is beast but never found it.
I hate those type of roads
BTW, my Google maps/Satnav did not fail me once.
It is not a British country road unless you have grass growing down the center of it and high banks either side
North devon coast is a lot like south wales
I recently visited Lake District (Cumbria) and SW Wales (Pembrokeshire area). I agree with you that those are some of the narrowest roads in the world. I am from the US and I can't understand why on earth you guys keep them so narrow?
They are extremely dangerous and not user friendly in any way. Is there a logic behind it?
Some of those country lanes don't even have any areas to squeeze into so that another car coming from the opposite direction could pass. Many a times one of the cars has to back up. It's bonkers!! I don't understand!!!
The roads have been there for hundreds of years, some cases longer. The local farmers and residents probably don't want their land used for road widening.
They are even more extreme in Devon and Cornwall. They were never intended for vehicles, they were used by pack horses, at least that is the case in the West Country. Most heavy goods were moved along the coast and up the rivers until the railways were built. They generally don't carry a lot of traffic and the land is more valuable than the inconvenience of using them.
As an aside, the West Country hedgerows are just the prettiest sight imaginable in late Spring and they are also very important for wildlife, it would be almost impossible to get them widened, some of the flora and fauna is protected by legislation. Just working close by a colony of bats would take months of planning and approvals, realigning or widening a road could take years of written submissions and permission is quite likely to be refused.
I don't enjoy driving along them and agree that they are not 'user friendly' but they have been there for a long time and are part of the landscape. In many ways they are more of a hazard for pedestrians as you are entirely reliant on the good road sense of drivers if you choose to walk along them.
The roads weren't designed for modern traffic conditions, they're what farmers would have used to take animals and produce to market. They have ancient hedgerows which are home to all sorts of wildlife and plants, and border farmland.
What's even more amazing is that the U S army did most of their training here prior to the d day landings , then we're totally unprepared for the bocage in Normandy which is identical to Devon
Because the Local Authority don't own the land either side of these roads - the land is privately owned by farmers, and other land owners.
A road will often form the boundary of land ownership. Land on one side of it will often be owned by a different person than land on the other side. For this reason you can't just simply widen the road.
Plus the hedgerows will likely have 'protected status' and can't be 'unprotected' because they may bound up in laws - laws which are complex and many.
Besides, why would anyone want to widen these roads? They're historic, but also valuable nature corridors (the hedgerows). It's the cars that need to shrink, not the roads that need to widen. Cars today are too big, and maybe it's time cars started getting smaller again? Just my view......though many will no doubt disagree with me.
If you had an electric car where would you be able to charge it?... So much for electric cars...
I know What Sat Navs are like Marcus they are swines for taking you on the back roads and not on the "Good Roads" spose we have to grin and bare it! :-)
I know they have options to 'avoid tolls' etc but do SatNavs/GoogleMaps have an option for best 'suitable road', where you don't need a canoe to travel along it.
@@flydriveexplore I must look into mine too!
Look you are more than ok going down county lanes provided you know how to drive. The most annoying thing is when a woman on holiday in her big BMW SUV doesn't know how to reverse or drive for that matter and expects you to reverse your tractor and trailer!!!! If you don't know how to use the roads I urge you not to drive down them.
No, the most annoying thing is when a Know-It-All MAN leaves sexist comments. (Women are much safer drivers than men. That's why we have lower insurance rates. Suck it, dude. )
you will find narrow lanes all over the UK
You will but Devon lanes are fairly unique because not only are they narrow they usually have high hedges or banks on either side. Apart from Northern Ireland I've driven all over the UK and Devon and Cornwall lanes are something else.