Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
'Aye,' Jim says. 'That dooberry off the rear quarter light.'
'That doesn't count! It's just a bit off the locking mechanism!'
'The locking mechanism?' Dave says. 'Right. So the car can get broken into easily.
Tut-tut, Banksie. Hope the boot locks.'
I look at him through narrowed eyes. 'Climb in and we'll find out.'
'Oh-oh. He's getting tetchy,' Jim says to Dave.
'I am not getting tetchy.'
'Aye,' Dave agrees. 'First day and all. Thought we'd go longer than that before he
started getting tetchy.'
'Look, I'm not—'
'First afternoon, in fact. That's extreme tetchiness. Even by Banksie The King of
Tetch standards.'
'Will you two stop it? I am not in any way—'
'This could be a long week.'
'Look, I am simply not—'
'Aye. Right enough. What with Banksie getting tetchy so quickly.'
'I am
not
getting
tetchy
!'
I have to suffer more of this outrageous tetchiness slander in bursts all the way up the
road through the Great Glen towards Inverness. This road, the A82, is pretty good; usu-
ally fairly busy, but with enough decent straights to allow some overtaking unless there
are absurd amounts of oncoming traffic. There is one bit at the side of the imaginatively
named Loch Lochy - my, must have been a hard night's brain-wracking in the smoke-
filled bothy to come up with
that
one - where there is a cliff on one side of the road and
the loch on the other. This is one of the few places where I've always reckoned it's rel-
atively safe to speed - albeit only briefly and always providing the road is empty - just
because there is so little likelihood of a sheep or a deer wandering out on front of the car.
There are actually two straights, the southern one shorter than the northern, with a hotel
on a sort of wiggle in the middle which spoils what would otherwise have been an even
more impressive length of road, but it's still a sweet stretch. And still no speed cameras.
Amazing.
The Jaguar takes even this section at a steady 60 or so; rolling along happily, its en-
gine issuing a burbling roar as though it's perpetually trying to clear its throat. The Jag is
a very relaxing car to drive, even though it takes a little more concentration than a modern
vehicle. It's that suited-to-the-legal-limit thing again; you don't feel that you ought to be
going faster just because the car can handle it, and because you're in no danger of being
snapped by a speed camera or tripping a radar trap, you can stop worrying about that as
well. It's almost as though you're driving in an era before there were such annoyances.
