Everything was planned for a week in Glen Affric/Glen Shiel starting Sunday.
I got up planning to reach Glen Coe by 10:30am, however, just before Lix
Toll I skidded off the road and it looks like the car's gonna be a write
off.
This was a strange accident, a foreboding happened just after Wooler on the
A697, the roads were very water logged, not something I've seen in many
years driving up and down there, spring and winter. On the A720 Edinbugh
ring road I also saw lots of fields waterlogged, and again on the A85 the
same. Now, I had been looking at the weather forecast for the past week and
never noticed heavy rain!
At Lochearnhead/Glen Ogle (where the huge landslide happened last year) the
water was coming down in torrents in those water channels. I noticed all of
this and (somehow) felt strange and a bit uneasy. Over the summit of Glen
Ogle and just before Mid Lix there is a cambered left hand bend, I remember
braking, then suddenly finding myself on the nearside kerb, I braked a bit
more, slowed down, then the rear flipped around and I slowly slidded across
the road, went over the angled kerb, and gently slid down a 6 foot ditch.
Not a scratch on me, no neck injuries or anything - apart from pride being
hurt.
The policeman said this was the 6 or 7th accident at the same spot over the
weekend. He said the road must have been very greasy as mud was lying on
the surface and they've complained to the council to get this section
resurfaced.
Who or what was to blame for the accident? Don't know. However, I have
never really been happy with the handling of the Almera, it had very light
steering - I was never able to effectively reverse park straight (never
had any problems with company hire cars I drove last year) and always
suspected some steering fault or alignment despite the Nissan garage
checking it. The was a lot of oversteer on some bends and I was always
careful.
Anyway, if you're approaching Lix Toll from the south, be extra careful
chaps and chapesses.
Jhimmy.