Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

Original poster

Ridiculous driving mistake

29 replies

toastedcat · 08/10/2022 23:32

Today I drove from Essex to London with my four-month-old. It should have taken an hour. Halfway through the journey I double-checked the destination on Google Maps (had an anxious internal voice tell me to) and then carried on.

40 mins or so into the journey it said we were about half an hour away, then was slowly counting down as we got nearer.

I noticed the signage was saying London was the opposite direction but I just assumed it was because I was going around London on the M25.

Then I noticed signs for Chelmsford. That can't be right. It was only when I was about 15 mins from home that I realised I'd looped back on myself because I must have set the destination to HOME on my maps when I checked it!

Honestly how bloody stupid can I be? I despair at my driving ability sometimes. I don't think I'm a danger on the road as I am sensible and careful but navigating the fucking roads I am shocking at!

I even thought to myself "this roundabout is a bit random" when it was the one that must've sent me looping back on myself.

To make matters worse when we continued back in the right direction we couldn't even go on the motorway, we ended up on all the congested roads from Romford. 🫣

OP posts:
Twopandemicpregnancies · 08/10/2022 23:35

I once did three loops around Johannesburg Airport in a hire car before realising I hadn’t set the Sat nav and it was left on the final destination of the previous driver 😂

AriettyHomily · 08/10/2022 23:37

Sat nav in my car is fucked, new car
Don't know what's going on.

Driving for 90 mins isn't recommended with a small baby.

DramaAlpaca · 08/10/2022 23:40

Oh dear! Don't worry, if happens to us all occasionally. I still sometimes do daft things like that and I've been driving for 37 years. Just last week I missed a signpost in an unfamiliar area and ended up somewhere random. I don't normally bother with the satnav but had to switch it on to find my way back to where I was supposed to be. I did feel a bit of a twit, tbh.

PrincessButtercupToo · 08/10/2022 23:41

It happens, and the junctions really can be confusing as often the signs stop a fair way short of the actual split, but what can really help is to be aware of the very, very old-fashioned things such as where the sun is. If you are driving from Essex into London at this time of tear then it’s always on your right.

Fink · 08/10/2022 23:47

I know your pain of poor navigation through Essex!

When I had a baby (probably about the same age as yours, as it happens), I had to drive down from Newcastle to east London. The last bit of the drive is very familiar because it's where I grew up/ parents still live. After an uneventful drive, I came off the M25 at the M11 junction and managed to get on the M11 going in the wrong direction - up towards Cambridge instead of into London. I had to go a whole junction up and down again. When I got back to the junction with the M25, I even more stupidly rejoined the M25 instead of carrying on down the M11. So then I ended up way out by Brentwood and had to come back in on the A12. I gave up trying to calculate how much time all that added to my journey. Thankfully the baby was asleep, but she made up for it by then not sleeping all night.

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 08/10/2022 23:48

Part of me thinks reliance on SatNav has actually robbed people of their ability to use their cognitive abilities to navigate.

My partner is like this. Same journey a million times, it doesn't matter. As soon as the SatNav goes off it's hesitations, wrong turns, wrong exists, doesn't recognise the unmissable landmarks we've driven past thousands of times, seemingly can't read roadsigns, etc etc.

I've no idea why it is other than some people having a very keen and astute sense of direction and distance, and being able to recall routes at the drop of a hat, and some people having absolutely no sense of direction, time, or distance at all. My mother is the same as my partner. She can do the same five minute bus journey a million times, but if you took the bus away and asked her to walk it she'd have a meltdown at the first junction she came to. I find it baffling.

DappledThings · 09/10/2022 00:04

Any time there is a tale of poor navigation I always want to share this to make anyone feel better. It really could be worse - news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8648011.stm

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 09/10/2022 00:11

DappledThings · 09/10/2022 00:04

Any time there is a tale of poor navigation I always want to share this to make anyone feel better. It really could be worse - news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/kent/8648011.stm

What a clown!

'Keeping the shore to the Right' makes sense in an emergency navigation situation, but did he not think 'hold on, what's that?' when the shore also appeared to his left?

Honest to god...

ErrolTheDragon · 09/10/2022 00:35

The CEO of DH's company was an American who used to drive from Heathrow up to the company in the northwest. He'd complain how dreadful the M25 was. Well, no one likes it but it's not that long a section ... he'd done this a few times before he happened to mentioned going through the Dartford Tunnel... yup. He'd been going nearly the whole way round anti-clockwise.

Reallycomplicatedpants · 09/10/2022 00:49

Or the time my sister was heading to Dorset from London, got on the wrong motorway but didnt realise till she hit Bristol.

HighlandPony · 09/10/2022 01:03

Haha I can wing it anywhere in Scotland apart from Glasgow and Edinburgh. Did get a wee bit loft for three hours going between aith and bixter in the dark in Shetland but I’m blaming that on the fact I was pregnant and didn’t know. Anything south past Carlisle or scotch corner and I’m fucked.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 09/10/2022 01:23

XDownwiththissortofthingX · 08/10/2022 23:48

Part of me thinks reliance on SatNav has actually robbed people of their ability to use their cognitive abilities to navigate.

My partner is like this. Same journey a million times, it doesn't matter. As soon as the SatNav goes off it's hesitations, wrong turns, wrong exists, doesn't recognise the unmissable landmarks we've driven past thousands of times, seemingly can't read roadsigns, etc etc.

I've no idea why it is other than some people having a very keen and astute sense of direction and distance, and being able to recall routes at the drop of a hat, and some people having absolutely no sense of direction, time, or distance at all. My mother is the same as my partner. She can do the same five minute bus journey a million times, but if you took the bus away and asked her to walk it she'd have a meltdown at the first junction she came to. I find it baffling.

This is 100% me. I don't know why. I used to be absolutely fine driving without a sat nav, sure I got lost sometimes (some memorable occasions include being a couple of streets away from a destination in London but unable to get there - or find parking - as my A to Z showed the one way streets going the other way, and driving through Warrington to a Christening and getting so hideously lost we missed the service. We got lost because we were at the end of one long road with the church at the end, but there was bollards our end that again, weren't on the A to Z!) but I got there in the end.

I don't know what's worse, the fact that I sometimes put the sat nav on to drive into the city I've lived in for 20 years, or the fact that I don't need to when driving to my grandparents house in a city I haven't lived even near for 20 years, but my brain takes over and gets me there?!

been and done it. · 09/10/2022 01:56

I didn't notice/realise that junction 21a of the M6 had 2 options, it's not ruddy normal - of course I took the slip road one and ended up in Liverpool instead of Oldham..to my shame one way and another twice. Ended up being escorted to my destination by a very lovely police officer who took pity on me. Hard to live that one down.

ChiefWiggumsBoy · 09/10/2022 02:06

been and done it. · 09/10/2022 01:56

I didn't notice/realise that junction 21a of the M6 had 2 options, it's not ruddy normal - of course I took the slip road one and ended up in Liverpool instead of Oldham..to my shame one way and another twice. Ended up being escorted to my destination by a very lovely police officer who took pity on me. Hard to live that one down.

I've almost done that so many times. It's awful isn't it, the way it's laid out? Especially recently where there's been road works confusing the matter.

Original poster
toastedcat · 09/10/2022 11:31

Thank you everyone, these have made me feel somewhat better 🤣

OP posts:
Original poster
toastedcat · 09/10/2022 11:32

AriettyHomily · 08/10/2022 23:37

Sat nav in my car is fucked, new car
Don't know what's going on.

Driving for 90 mins isn't recommended with a small baby.

I was driving 2hrs 15m total by the end of my adventure 🤦‍♀️

OP posts:
JoanThursday · 09/10/2022 11:36

My DH thinks he has a great sense of direction but the reality can be very different!

The wrong turn on a dark November night in rural Northumberland was particularly memorable. We went out for a local meal while on holiday: our 20 mins journey there ended up being nearly 90 mins back!

soundsofthesixties · 09/10/2022 11:38

I've never used mine, That's probably because I've no idea how to work itGrin

Primroseprimula · 09/10/2022 12:10

Driving home from Bristol to Taunton once I got totally confused at a roundabout and ended up going towards weston super mare.

Looped back to the roundabout and ended up in the wrong lane again and going back towards weston super mare.

I was thinking at this point I was going to have to phone the RAC and pretend to have broken down and get them to tow me home because I was incapable of driving in the right direction 🤣

Fifthtimelucky · 09/10/2022 12:41

My favourite story is someone who lived in a rural area and wasn't very confident on unfamiliar roads, especially motorways.

On one famous occasion she made a longer journey than usual, which should have involved two junctions on the M25. Unfortunately she made a mistake at the roundabout at the junction, and went the wrong way round the M25 - driving about 100 miles more than she needed to - mainly in the dark.

When she told me about it afterwards, I said I could understand her making the initial mistake but asked why she had carried on going when she realised that she'd gone wrong. She looked at me in horror and said "but you can't just turn round on the motorway". I had to explain that although that was true, she could have got off at the next junction and turned round there!

madnessitellyou · 09/10/2022 14:03

I was driving from north London to the North West. Set sat nav to home (didn't have enough data for Google maps). It was telling me I'd reach my destination at 1am. It was 4pm. I don't know London particularly well but I what I did start thinking was why I wasn't being directed north.

Pulled over. Entered my actual postcode. Bingo. Sent me the correct way and was home by 9.

Got home and mentioned to dh that there was clearly a fault with the Sat nav and it needed updating.

Turned out he'd set 'home' to the hotel we'd stayed in in Lanzarote (we'd hired a car) and the Sat nav was therefore directing me to the Canary Islands

CormoranStrike · 09/10/2022 14:08

We once circled a French city for a ridiculous amount of time, after following instructions to follow signs for Peripherique - it took a very long time and an inquisitive 12 year old DS to suggest that was maybe French for ring road!

NothingIsWrong · 09/10/2022 14:09

I ended up in wales by accident once when I didn't notice I'd taken the slip road from the south bound M5 onto the west bound M4. To add insult, I had to pay the toll on the bridge and then turn round and go straight back. Was aiming for Exeter

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 09/10/2022 14:13

I once read a story about a man who ran out of petrol on the M25. He’d come up from Dover, and was heading for (I think) Manchester, so headed round the M25, looking for a sign saying Manchester. Sadly he didn’t find one, and just carried on going round the M25 looking for the sign, until he finally ran out of petrol. He went round the M25 three times, and over the Dartford Crossing three times without noticing.

FamilyTreeBuilder · 09/10/2022 14:17

Doesn't sound there is anything actually wrong with your driving.

Your sense of direction and navigational ability on the other hand...