Odd things that have happened at dusk in the UK.

[rewilded]

I was driving back to my campsite from Lizard's Point to St Ives at dusk, and my sat nav kept directing me onto narrow B roads. One particular turn felt wrong from the start. We were quite high up, and the lane grew narrower and more rugged as we went further down. The road eventually turned into a rubbly track, with steep banks on both sides, dense undergrowth, and trees leaning over, giving it an eerie atmosphere. I grew anxious, worried that another car might come from the opposite direction since reversing would have been impossible. I was also convinced that one side was either a cliff edge or a steep drop. The thought of being ambushed crossed my mind, especially since I had my teenage daughter with me.

Suddenly, the sat nav cut out, and we found ourselves at a dead end with a fjord at the bottom. The road ended abruptly, swallowed by thick undergrowth and forest on the other side. An overwhelming sense of dread washed over me—an indescribable feeling of pure evil. I was terrified.

It took everything I had to reverse back up the hill, and it felt almost impossible to make it out. When I finally reached the top and got back onto the road, I stopped for a moment to compose myself. Just then, a car emerged from that very lane and sped off. I’ve never gotten onto an A road so quickly in my life.

Eagerly opened the thread hoping for a spooky story only to discover the long winded tale of someone who just isn’t used to country driving - sorry OP, it had to be said!

PMSL at the pissed posting by tolerable 😂😂

The police and council have permanently shut off my local ford, closed the road to traffic due to the crowds coming to watch. Various TikTok accounts filming the cars and it was becoming like a tourist attraction for people to drive through it. Shame because as a kid I used to love watching the cars drive through, even 30 years ago there would be a group of kids urging the cars to floor it.

Bonkers, but years ago in Wales we followed an early sat nav past lots of farms to a fenced- in edge of a cliffside.

Kind of knew going through several farm yards, that we’d see all of those people, quite soon, on the way back.

sadly no fjords or fords.

Some of them are quite low I guess, so maybe they get swamped by the water more easily? 🤷‍♀️. No idea how flooding an electric car affects it/damages it compared to a normal car. I drove my (non electric) car years ago through a flooded road. Other cars got through fine and mine died in the middle of the flood. Thought I’d written the car off but thankfully it survived.

😂😂

I think she meant a ford.

This is an example of why common sense has to be engaged and not blindly obeying sat nav

Driving down to Cornwall for summer holiday years ago, our car* radio just cut out around Bodmin Moor.
Never came back on during our 10 days stay.
Driving home, it suddenly cackled back to life just after we left Bodmin.
Even sensible DH was a bit spooked.

*NOT a Fjord Focus sadly! 😔

@rewilded would you be brave enough to attempt that drive sometime today, in hopefully bright sunshine to see tbe actual lay of the land?

(Needed a name change - thanks @tolerable 😉😂)

Now that is eerie.

I think the word you were looking for is ‘sorry.’

A fjord is a long, narrow sea inlet with steep sides or cliffs, created by a glacier

No road is impossible to reverse back up as you proved to yourself by reversing back along it

I have to say I couldn’t imagine living in the country & having to drive down some of those roads at night. They can be so eerie & I always think what if your car breaks down. I’d be housebound 😆

😂

I think some people do struggle if it's not at least a B road!

I'm going to be honest, I've never used a satnav. I tend to look at the map on my phone and follow road signs.

It's fine, you get used to it - just don't use a satnav!

😂 Brilliant

What are the Google map coordinates? Then everyone can assess how odd it is on street view.

Good idea!

I’ve heard almost identical stories in rural areas of Ireland. Pretty common for sat nav not to work well and everywhere looks creepy and ominous at dusk when you don’t know where you are.

I think you have to get used to driving where there's no street lights. Just driving by your headlights does make things look different.

I have had occasions in Cornwall where Google maps has selected an entirely inappropriate route, especially in Penwith (the area between and around Penzance and St Ives). I’d love to know exactly where you were as I know the area reasonably well having grown up there.

Google sent us on quite a random route from Helston to St Ives earlier this summer on evening and I think probably in roughly the same place as you cutting across from Ludgvan in our case to the B3311 at Badger’s Cross. I wonder if you’ve been over towards the Red River (not spooky, so named because the water is rich in iron which makes it look red), and there are quite a few fords out that way between Crowlas and Nancledra. Farm tracks tend to be access roads to fields and houses so it does go road > track > bridleway.

Cornwall is a deeply mysterious land, though most of the weirder stuff happens out on the open moorland. I think more likely you took a wrong turn and ended up at a dead end.

Why is cornwall mysterious??