...kerrrunch!!!!...skerrape!!
Imagine the scene; it's early evening and you are a Tesco Online driver with a van full of fruit, vegetables and groceries, a fridge full of perishables and a freezer full of ice cream, frozen desserts and garden peas. And you've umpteen more calls to make. Anyway, you've just got a quick call down here (Talland Hill in Polperro) and 'cos you're busy and in a hurry you don't notice that the road is the same width as the van.
14 hours later, when you finally get free, you've noticed alright!
It's not recorded whether the long and ancient tradition of "wrecking" transferred to jammed Tesco vans, and whether large quantities of comestibles were "liberated". But one thing's for sure, I bet this was one driver who didn't take a short cut down Talland Hill again...
Click on photo for larger version
On the first day of his honeymoon the poor chap might have been a little bemused but in his defence he said he was following a Marina estate that 'seemed to know where he was going'!
In the picture the car is backing out - it escaped significant damage - but the stressed out driver had a set of jangled nerves to go with the car's very hot clutch!
One thing to remember about Polperro is that the streets were made for donkies not cars! Just around the corner is Talland Hill - a long steep road rising from the village - it's no entry from the bottom these days but it wasn't always. There are several narrow spots but there is one that snags an embarrassed driver at least once a year. Burnt out clutches - tractor towing - wall rebuilding and a lot of waving arms and ruckus! Sometimes it is a foreigner who might be excused with all the signs being in English but how do we explain the British stuckees?
See also Tony White's Bits & Pieces page
and a Dutchman who wants to complain
He thought it was flat
He's had it with that
There's a sign at the top to explain!
Pat Libby, Helen & her parents - winners of the Polperro Festival Limerick Competition 1998