Up to Orkney - 6th August
With less than a mile to go to the next service station I felt the car stutter and knew I wasn’t going to make it.
I had been sitting in traffic jam on the M6 while the police, having taken down the central reservation, were diverting traffic from one carriageway to the other. A lorry and trailer lying on its side completely blocking the whole carriageway was responsible for this and the ensuing havoc with already three huge cranes in place to try and restore it to its proper position. Whilst I sat in the traffic jam for over an hour before even getting to this point I felt very sorry for those people on the opposite carriageway who would have had a similar wait, only to be signalled across the motorway to return back the way they had come and find another route on which to continue their journey. However this was the furthest thought from my mind as I carefully steered the car off onto the hard shoulder realising that I had for the first time ever run out of petrol! Stealing myself for a very embarrassing phone call to the AA I was in the middle of the call when a Highways Agency car pulled up behind me. Realising that this was yet more people I was going to have to confess my stupidity to I thought well at least they would be able to tell me exactly were I was to pass on to the AA.
These new Highways Agency personal are apparently there to help keep traffic flowing on the motorways and sort out any problems….well that was what they said when I asked them. However I really cant see what they do do! They weren’t able to take me to the service station due to HSE regulations about carrying passengers and so I really don’t see what they can do that cannot/is not done by the emergency services or breakdown services. They are not able/qualified/allowed to handle any of these problems themselves so I’m not really sure of their role at all……unless its purely to slow down the traffic ….cos whenever you see one of these vehicles at a distance it always looks like a police car!
Apart from this minor delay the journey was uneventful and I stopped overnight just south of Inverness and continued on the following morning at a slower pace going the long way round so that I could take in John o’Groats. Like so many of these places there is actually nothing there except a car park, souvenir shops and a hotel. There are some tourist boat trips out to the Orkneys and that’s about it. The coastal path is quite scenic but beware the rabbit holes!
