PANDAMAN Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Hello Everyone Waiching the Ice Road Truckers on TV, my wife said that we would never want to take our motorhome on those truely shocking roads and their terrible driving. But I wondered if anyone has driven in that area as I would like to hear other peoples comments about the conditions. Regards Pandaman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallii Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Those roads are a piece of cake compared to Morocco ( and the Portugese mouintains). Andorra in the snow is exciting as well! H Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the gog Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 I don't know which roads you were on in Morocco but having recently returned from there, I'd far prefer them to the Ice Truckers Indian routes or even Belgiums roads (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nowtelse2do Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Don't forget that they are playing up to a TV show who will be paying a lot of money. I would think that 80% - 90% of the speeds they are doing is speed-ed up on camera for effect. When actually running on ice, the ice is constantly monitored. And I totally agree about the comment on the Indian and Belgian roads. Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colin Posted December 12, 2011 Share Posted December 12, 2011 Two journey's come to mind, on the first gf's sister was screaming from back seat that she wanted to get out and walk in the end I had to turn around before she deafened us or jumped, second was driving up what I thought was a road it got to point when I was thinking we'll either get to top of mountain or die trying, on talking to local he couldn't work out what road we had been on till the penny dropped, we had mistakenly taken the goat track. On both ocasions we where driving the old type Panda, great little cars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 hallii - 2011-12-12 8:54 PM Those roads are a piece of cake compared to Morocco ( and the Portugese mouintains). Andorra in the snow is exciting as well! H We hired a car when in Morocco and drove over the High Atlas mountains & through the Sub Sahara most of the roads were better than in the UK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 lennyhb - 2011-12-13 8:32 AM We hired a car when in Morocco and drove over the High Atlas mountains & through the Sub Sahara most of the roads were better than in the UK. ....changed a bit since I did it in a Renault 4, then! (lol) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lennyhb Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 A few like that but most tarmac now, even the tracks as in your photos had less pot holes than UK roads. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HymerVan Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 I have not driven in India but I have been there and I can say that the driving conditions are incredible and make Italy look like a driving instructors convention !! The volumes of traffic are huge and you can encounter a bullock cart on the equivalent of amotorway. Although IRT is designed for entertainment there can be little doubt about how dangerous the roads are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malc d Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Those dirt roads in Morocco remind me of a tour of the Norwegian fjord country we did in 1971 ! They too have now been nicely 'tarmac-ed' over - although still a bit narrow at times. ;-) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolandrat Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Obviously no weighbridges out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 HymerVan - 2011-12-13 12:34 PM I have not driven in India but I have been there and I can say that the driving conditions are incredible and make Italy look like a driving instructors convention !! The volumes of traffic are huge and you can encounter a bullock cart on the equivalent of amotorway. Although IRT is designed for entertainment there can be little doubt about how dangerous the roads are. ......or Elephants! ;-) (Central Delhi - had to stop and take a (non too distinct) photo). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Bry Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Nothing compared to driving in my home land of Thailand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thai Bry Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Will attach another picture if the system lets me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alan k Posted December 13, 2011 Share Posted December 13, 2011 Its not so much the roads in themselves but the way in which people drive that makes Indian Roads so dangerous. The roads featured in the "Indian" Ice Road Truckers are at high altitude leading to remote construction sites. However, in November 2009 we visited Bangalore and parts of the the south including Ooty up in the hills where the Raj used to spend the summer in the cool at 7000ft, and the standard of driving is absolutely horrendous. We always had a driver, supplied with the car, very cheap, the driver either slept in the car or at alot of hotels there is an annex/bunkroom for the drivers. Our first experience of traffic in Bangalore, heading into town from the airport the taxi driver left the queueing 3 lane road dual carriageway and drove along the cart track alongside the motorway until he decided it was quicker to push his way at the roadworks back onto the 3 lane road. Bangalore is a big modern city the silicon town of India and where most of the Indian call centres are, and the traffic was horrifying and that was just trying to cross the road to get from the hotel. Most of the major roads in the city are 3 lane each way at least, and the tuktuks and motorbikes all try to get to the front, everybody has to get 6ins further forward, and the front line of the grid is at least 5 vehicles wide on a 3 lane road. Oh and the ones turning right might make another 2 lanes on the opposite carriageway, and need to turn right when or just before the lights turn to green before the oncoming traffic hits them! On our first trip out of town was on a partly built dual carriageway and mainly just had the road stone down but occasionally there was some tarmac base course. Stretches of carriageway were being worked on and we alternated between carriageways, just a couple of cones and a bit of fluttering tape to get you to swop across to the other side. There were speed humps every now and then but everybody seemed to do about 50 mph or so until they saw a speed hump when it was hard on the brakes until it was negotiated then hard on the accelerator again. On our longer trip up into the Hills at Ooty, they was lots of overtaking on blind corners and our driver caused one accident although fortunately no one was injured. However the bullock, which was standing in the back of the little pickup, wasn't too happy when it finished in the ditch avoiding the lorry that was coming the other way. The largish crowd that surrounded our car was angry with our driver made worse by the fact that that the car was registered in the next state! Our trip back to Bangalore along one of India's motorways was frightening, lorries travelled the wrong way in the outside lane til they could cross the central reservation to join the correct lane, buses travelled in the outside lane for miles with their left indicator on ( it means pass on my left), bullock carts going to the fields heading the wrong way on the hard shoulder, a farmer herding about 30 goats across the motorway and having to help some of them get over the central reservation cos it was so high. And generally the noise, the horn means I'm here, look out for me! and is used all the time especially when setting off from the traffic lights. We'd love to go back again and probably will, we saw the real India, arranged our road trips through a travel agent in Bangalore and in many places we visited were the odd ones out we were the white faces and lots of people mainly young men wanted to talk and practice their English. Disappointingly, most hadn't heard of Bradford or Yorkshire but most new about Manchester and Man Utd. I did find a German Travel Company who did "drive yourself" tours to northern India in a group after you met up in Istanbul before driving through Turkey and overland to India. I think it was about a 90 day trip but my wife has even vetoed Morocco ! cheers alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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