In England’s countryside, remember to keep calm and motor on

The English countryside … so tranquil and picturesque. A last bastion of bucolic calm.

Until, that is, you start driving. Take a few short turns off the motorways, and, suddenly: the roads. Traffic in both directions but pavement just one vehicle wide. The route always curving. The hedgerows always taller than your head.

My husband and I rented a car and drove from Cornwall in the south to the Lake District in the north. I spent a quarter of the time yelping as we kept rounding the turns and meeting another driver coming right at us. All this while proceeding on the left side of the road (as if the roads were even big enough to have sides)!

Behind the wheel, I couldn’t keep from hugging the left and clipping the shrubbery, hoping there wasn’t one of those lovely stone walls underneath. (I rode over only one curb.)

My husband did better – barely nipping the hedgerows and never crying out. But where’s the fun in that?

Thankfully, there was plenty to marvel at along the way. The drystone walls snaking up vertical slopes. The impossibly green meadows dotted with sheep. The ancient stone houses and timbered pubs – their doorways and ceilings so low that ducking was a requirement. Indeed tranquil and picturesque, exactly as we’d hoped.

Once we’d managed to park, at least.

For more visual storytelling that captures communities, traditions, and cultures around the globe, visit The World in Pictures.