117,000

Between 117,000 and 130,000, that’s the number of paid admissions to the Moto GP at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo Cheste stadium on Sunday, October 26th. That was a day of great thrills and spills for the spectators and racers, but even more so for the organisers.

The event is an annual one at this same time of the year, but this year presented some very special problems brought about by heavy rains that had persisted for more than two weeks. The country had been experiencing the Gota Fria with all the usual floods and destruction. As an organiser that must have brought on many sleepless nights as to cater for so many people for an event of this magnitude must surely have been the ultimate nightmare. Even if the weather was cooperating perfectly there are so very many things that can go wrong.

The town of Cheste is usually a very quiet place. People go about their business, that is primarily agriculture and generally keep themselves to their own. But once or twice a year the racetrack draws half the world and their cousins and the town becomes overrun with the enthusiasm of racing fever. For the Grand Moto GP this is even further exaggerated as young people on their magnificent bikes come rolling into town like the thunder of the gods seeking fun. It seems to be an accepted thing that somebody has to die during the period.

This year, on the first of three days of racing and celebration, two people lost their lives. I’m not speaking of official racers, but spectators in attendance. The temptation to attract attention to one’s self during this time is very strong, so there is no shortage of guys showing off their shiny pride and joy. Unfortunately, sometimes things get out of hand and go horribly wrong. It’s hard to imagine how parents feel when told that they have lost their son or daughter at a time when they were only seeking to have fun.

To make matters worse for the organisers, this year the approach to the circuit was in the midst of hard major works as the new high-speed train from Madrid is in the process of being developed. Consequently, with temporary access of a very confusing nature the ability to cater to so much traffic was daunting. But even this was further complicated by the fact that the non-paved parking lots around the circuit were under water, so parking could not be allowed anyway.

Someone came up with the brilliant idea of having motor homes and cars to park about 20 minutes away and the occupants shifted by bus. Even under the best of circumstances this would not have worked very well, but that was before they knew that so many people would eventually show up.

Saturday it was still raining and the forecast was for more rain on Sunday. A disaster!

Sunday dawned dry and bright and it quickly became apparent that the day was going to be absolutely fabulous. So people who otherwise thought they might not bother got up early and headed for Cheste. The organisers panicked, but in a good way. They wisely concluded that the area around the stadium had to be made park-able, and they only had about an hour to get it done. Yes, it was impossible, but made even more so by arguing about it.

The trucks rolled and the heavy machinery scooped and smoothed and in one hour it was done. A calamity of superior proportions was avoided, and the young people arrived in just about everything that moved. 117,000 of them paid admission to the circuit producing several million in income for the track. That was 5,000 more than paid to see Formula One on the streets of Valencia. To say that this was unexpected is a great understatement.

In spite of all the excitement and the unabated testosterone the crowd behaved itself and all went off without any major hitches. Certainly you needed patience because of so many people just to get anything at all. The trains and buses did a roaring trade as a great many people heeded advice to leave their vehicles in Valencia.

I did not attend the races myself as I have been nursing a healing foot, but mid-afternoon I made my way over to Cheste, which is the next town to mine, to see how things were progressing. I arrived just as the races had ended and all those people were leaving. Now try to imagine that you are the only person going the wrong way.

Cheste survived another invasion, everyone had a great time it seems, and the papers and tv reports were glowing in their praise for the event. Young people arrived and camped out in the weather and did their fun thing which reminds me that young people are pretty wonderful. Is youth wasted on the young as someone once said? I think not, but would I like to be young again? Sounds like a lot of hard work to me.

Copyright (c) 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Spanish Parking

We drivers in Spain do not park our cars, instead we abandon them. Patience is not generally thought of as our long suite, so what happens usually is that we drive into the town centre to get as close to where we want to conduct business, and we park alongside the row of cars that is already there and try to be quick about getting things done.

For new comers and foreigners to Spain this is very difficult to understand. Where is the consideration for our fellow man? True, the unwritten rule is that if you are going to do this, you should leave your parking brake off so that your car can be moved forward or backward. Frankly, this is very dangerous. If the road surface has a gradual decline you are asking for trouble.

I once watched as a poor man came back to find that his car was hemmed in by a line of double-parked cars the entire length of the block. He didn’t have the time to wait for the owners to come back, so he started at the head of the line and moved that car out into the path of crossing traffic. One by one he moved all the cars that he needed in order to give himself an opportunity to leave. He was not gentle and several cars suffered scratches.

I find it very difficult to understand the mentality of people who are so self-serving that to lock in another motorist until the offending driver returns is off the radar of selfishness. However, it does seem to stop there. I have never seen a fight break out because of this. I think that you might be taking your life in your hands if you did such a thing in Los Angeles. What is going on here?

Well, first, there’s simply too much traffic inflicting itself in the downtown areas. People need to get in the habit of parking outside city limits and taking public transport into the heart of the city. We also have to learn that walking is good exercise. As a practical matter, if we can park a little farther away from our destination and walk the distance, we do our bodies good.

My general idea is to leave my car several kilometres outside town and ride the bus or metro. Parking in pay parking has grown so expensive as to be offensive. So, these places should be avoided as rip-off stations. Add to that they try to pack in as many cars as possible, and that leads many people to leave the colour of their cars behind.

Moving through the city is an interesting experience in seeing how far people are prepared to go to leave their cars for the duration. The space that is marked for pedestrians is heaven sent for so many drivers who say that if it were not for that they would not have any place to park.

Sidewalks provide much needed parking for off-road space, and any building lot not actively being worked on is welcome space. I recently saw one driver had pushed the edge of the envelope to the extreme by parking nose in between two cars. Very novel indeed!

One final thought: In many ways I recognize that I am becoming just like the Spanish. A case of "When in Spain do as the Spanish do?"

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Driving while Injured

The law states that you must not drive while impaired in any way. Apart from those people who are so moronic that they should not come anywhere near a vehicle, what does that statement actually mean?

An easy interpretation would be that if the driver is suffering in any way the use of his full faculties then he must not take up the position of controlling his vehicle. So, whether you have a hurt foot or arm or hand or eyesight, or anything of that sort, the edict is to take a break.

However, having said that we have driving by special disabled operators, so that seems to call into question whether every injury automatically bars driving. Certainly drunkenness or impairment through default of sight are clearly acceptable reasons why we need to stay away from trying to drive. Also, we have to acknowledge that disabled drivers usually have specially customized cars to assist them

What if we have an automatic car, can we still drive if we have injured our left foot? This is a foot that is simply not necessary for driving an automatic. But can we still drive a manual shift if we have sustained an injury to that foot. It really all depends on how severe the injury, as you certainly have to be able to apply the clutch.

If you have an injured right arm that disallows the changing of gears, can you cope? Doesn’t sound like it as you should never remove both hands from the steering wheel while in motion. I do recall seeing a man doing just that to have a mobile telephone conversation, but that’s as we say, another story.

What about the left arm injury? Can it be used to at least hold the steering wheel and to make turns, because if it cannot you will be taking an exceptional risks in going out into traffic.

I want to say that in the case of the sufferance of injury commonsense has a great role to play. Getting around by vehicle is such an important part of our every day life that sometimes stretching things may be necessary, however, should you ever have to make such a decision it is critical that you err on the side of safety. A reckless decision now might lead to horrific results later.


Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

Miles to Go!

“The woods are lovely, dark and deep
But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep,

And miles to go before I sleep.” (Frost)



We do a lot of driving, most of which is not an actual enjoyable experience, although being able to do so is a real privilege. My wife and I visited our friend, the fabulous Ms. G who lives in Ojen which is located just eight kilometros inland of Marbella. Ojen is a small white village that sits on the side of a mountain. It is very typical of so many villages but each has its own story.

Ojen was in fiestas and the party went on in spite of the uncooperative weather. There are very few flat parts to the village, and every thing is a mini of what Madrid or Valencia would have. It is a town of locals and others, and that is made very clear as the locals don’t go out of their way for us foreigners, however, we were perfectly free to roam about and to enjoy ourselves, which we did.

I did wonder what effect a hillside town has on its aging population. Do people live longer because of the strength they build from walking up such steep inclines, or do they depart this life at a younger age? That is the question.

Our hostess was very kind to take us on a long drive through country roads over the mountains, and that is what I want to share. Driving through cities and along the national or autovias is the fundamentals of getting from point A to point B. This was just pleasure driving, something we have to go out of our way to achieve.

For this excursion we travelled from Ojen further inland to Ronda to see the great Gorge. Our journey took us along the A355 to Monda, then via a shortcut through Guaro to pick up the A366 to Ronda. Along the way we passed through Tolox, Alozaina, Yunguera, and El Burgo where we stopped for a rest. These are all small towns but they seemed to be well ordered with a functioning society built around agriculture.

This was a delightful trip for us passengers but for the driver it requires full concentration on the road as it was a mountain route with narrow roads and hairpin bends all the way. We are therefore very grateful to our friend who did the driving.

Taking the route that we did meant having to cross the Sierra Bermeja. We went up one side, then along the top at 1190 meters above sea level, and down the other side. I thought it quite astonishing that so many people live in these wide-open spaces. Mainly it is olive country so I suppose that’s the principal reason why there is such a large population so far away from the major centres. By contrast the density of people living down along the coast is horrific. At one point I actually closed my eyes away from the obscenity of that sight.

I observed something on that journey that was really striking: you pass from deeply forested areas into sudden arid conditions where hardly anything at all grows. The line is quite rigidly drawn and seems preposterous. After travelling for many kilometres the land changes again to one of no greenery at all. Now we were in rock country. This is the most amazing environment, it’s like what I would expect on other planets. I was going to try to describe the types of formations and colouring, which is basically different shades of grey, but I’ve concluded that would not be possible. It’s simply something one has to see with own eyes.

After leaving this area we re-enter the world of green, but in a gentle way with hedges and green grass, and then comes the outskirts of Ronda. This is a major town and also a significant tourist centre. Its draw is the El Tajo gorge. The land extends at one level, then suddenly falls away by about 300 feet. This must surely be something of a rarity in Spain. In the United States there is the Grand Canyon, and that would be something similar, except that with the Ronda Gorge the drop off is only on one side.

Amazingly, down below there are homes and farms and a mini-community. I’m sure that far too many people give in to the temptation to see how long something thrown takes to reach the bottom.

So, an enjoyable visit to the southern parts of Spain, and in particular the inland and remote parts that I’m sure many would say, “This is Real Spain.”

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael

250 kmp/h

I was driving the CV-35 during a period when it was very quiet. It was a lovely day, and as I drove I had my driver’s side window down. Ahead of me in the right lane was a learner-driver cruising along at about 85, so I moved into the middle lane to overtake her as I was moving at about 115-120 kmp/h.

Suddenly, I was overtaken by two cars. The first was a white car, being either an Audi TT or a Porshce, and that was followed closely by a dark blue beemer. (BMW) They were travelling at about 250 kmp/h.

Mainly, I want to try to describe the experience of having that happen so unexpectedly, but I’m sure it can only be appreciated if you’ve lived through it.

I didn’t see them coming, so the first I knew was when they passed me. With my window open I was treated to both sudden sound and movement. If I tell you that the sound was of the nature of an explosion I’m sure you can appreciate that.

Blam! That was accompanied by a big push, and they were gone. I quite literally jumped and my heart went to my throat. I let out a foul cry, too objectionable for this blog, because I thought I’d been hit. I followed that with :” You stupid bastards! Slow down!”

I’ve said this before and I’m moved to say it again: Eliminate stupidity from the roads and our crash statistics will fall like a rock. Why would a person think that it was ok to push their car to that limit, at any time of the day or night, when they know that the maximum speed limit is 120 kmp/h? They don’t have to be particularly bright to know that up ahead there will be other road users travelling at half their speed, and that there would be no way that they could slow in time to avoid a crash.

It’s especially annoying that the people who do this type of stupidity are also rich. It’s too bad that the gain of money doesn’t necessarily mean a gain in common sense. The drivers who did that were simply hooligans, but rich ones. A hooligan is a hooligan, is a hooligan. That the person is rich doesn’t make him, or her, any better.

While we are on the topic, why do manufacturers release to the public vehicles that can travel so fast anyway? The speed limit is set at 120, so why does my car’s speedometer suggest that it can get up to 240. When am I likely to need to travel at that speed? I’m fairly certain that my car would start to disintegrate over 200 kmp/h, and I say that as a Volvo driver.

Apparently no crash occurred, but that in itself was an accident. Good fortune was firmly on everyone’s side that day. Those two morons were certainly tempting fate severely.

So, for goodness sake, let common sense rule. Slow down and save my life. I also suggest that we each preserve our own lives for the one’s who love us.

Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” (Frost)