Nightmare at Junction 10a

I had a letter to attend a medical consultant at the great William Harvey Hospital.

I was not worried about this but was worried how I would get there. The only way was to drive myself.

This was a worry as I would need to drive around the nightmare Junction 10a/10; I had heard stories about this junction. They can’t all be true.

Many people I know try to avoid this area and others have turned into a pile of jelly after driving around and around this junction trying to find the exit.

The day dawned for my appointment and as I approached the junction, I had a deep feeling in the pit of my stomach of foreboding.

I thought the stories I have

heard can’t be true so I gathered all my powers and took several deep breaths to take this on.

I drove up the slope off the slip road to the traffic lights at the top. I thought I was alone but, no, in the rear-view mirror taking up the whole view was the biggest Hungarian truck I have ever seen.

The lights changed and almost before I could get into first gear he was beginning to move forward onto me. My heart was in my mouth and my mouth went dry; all the fears came into my mind at the same time.

I managed to pull away only to be almost wiped out by a mad white van man jumping the lights from the right.

I was starting to sweat; the Hungarian truck turned into the truck stop.

I progressed onto a second roundabout wondering if I was in the correct lane. I was.

I could not go forward as the traffic was too heavy. I found myself thinking for other drivers as they don’t seem to think for themselves.

They roar around these roundabouts like bullets out of a gun, no slowing down, no

signalling, a gap appeared so I put my foot down to get into it with the sweat pouring down my face.

I along with cars, trucks and vans raced toward this gap.

We all found our various lanes to get onto the A2070 – I just hoped that it was in the correct lane for the hospital.

It occurred to me that if anything were to happen I wasn’t far from A&E. I got onto the old original roundabout and carried on to the William Harvey with a chorus of horns and hooters as others tried to get into lanes that they should be in.

I breathed a sigh of relief as the hospital came into view and made my way to the car park, and that is another nightmare.

My consultation was all OK, then came the return trip back to Folkestone. This was not so bad and much more straightforward.

I do wonder if the engineer who designed this Junction 10/10a monstrosity actually has a car and or has been driven around it.

He or she probably goes to work on a bike and not on a motorway.