“We have to what? Drive a what? Where? And how?” was along
the lines of what I said as the reality sank in of having the World Nomads van
in our possession for the next six weeks.
I had spent the last few months in Asia
studying the intricacies of driving on the left-hand side of the road. I
coached myself on right-hand turn etiquette, the ins and outs of round-abouts,
and generally prided myself on looking the right way before crossing the road. However
I don’t think I ever got into a friend’s vehicle without going to the driver’s
side first looking for the passenger seat, but that’s an inconsequential
mistake to make. No accidents result.
But actually being behind the wheel of the World Nomads
Ambassador van for the first time was an absolutely terrifying experience. I
immediately broke into a sweat, and I hadn’t even turned on the ignition. I
wasn’t even really sure where the ignition was.
I told myself not to confuse the windshield wipers with the
turn signal. I already had visions of desperately trying to stay on the correct
side of the road, gear down, brake, figure out where to look to make a
successful right-hand turn, and trying to figure out how to turn off the
windshield wipers (which of course would be on high and perhaps spraying vast
amounts of washer fluid everywhere) while searching for the turn signal I
originally meant to activate instead. This was not a vision I wanted to turn
into a reality.
“Don’t worry. Just give it five minutes. It’s like riding a
bicycle,” said Mark at Travellers Auto Barn, where we picked up the van. He
obviously noticed the distinct lack of colour in my face. Or maybe it was the
nonsensical gibberish and rocking back and forth that tipped him off.
In the end and after much prompting from Kelly to start the
van and not cancel the trip, we got from A to B without hitting anything or
anybody. In fact we were relatively unscathed save for a minor tantrum on my
part and lots of “you’re doing great, please don’t run us off the road” words
of support from Kelly.
Shortly after that journey though, I handed over the keys to
Kelly, who seems to have embraced the whole driving-a-big-van-in-urban-Australia
thing much better than I. Maybe it’s a boy thing. Either way, our individual strengths
are now being well utilized; I am the navigator (since Kelly’s navigation
skills leave something to be desired – “turn left” often means “turn right” and
vice versa), and Kelly is the fearless driver.
So I’m still terrified, but at least I can bury my head in my
arms and have a temper tantrum in the passenger seat without fear of crashing
the van. Sweet.
Check out this video/diary (if the link above doesn't work) for our initial impressions of
driving the van!
