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The Eight-Three-O

  • (Ian McCalman)
  • He was driving up to Mallaig, Glenfinnan by Loch Shiel
    Heading for Lochailort, content behind the wheel
    The road was getting narrower, the sign said, Slow!
    It's the Highland daily dodgems, it's the 8-3-0

    There is a natural assumption that 'A' roads are wide
    Enough to take a car - and one the other side
    Tourist Information will never never tell
    It's like driving through heaven on a road made for hell

    'Cos' it's a single track, you can't turn back
    The stories are all the same
    Of the tourists leaving Corpach, never seen again ...
    Don't go on the 8-3-0

    The's a joke in the Highlands, it's called a 'passing place'
    Where French stay for chips, and English stay for days and days and days
    When lorries lose control you've one last wish
    Don't let me die under twenty tons of fish

    'Cos' it's a single track, you can't turn back
    A nightmare without end
    Eyes ahead, 'cos' Nigel Mansell's waiting round the bend ...
    Don't go on the 8-3-0
    Don't go on the 8-3-0

    Whoever called this road a road was telling little lies
    The 8-3-0's a sheep track in very thin disguise
    Italian caravanettes, driving on the right
    Meeting Wallace Arnold coaches in the middle of the night

    Of the man that's stopping progress, a theory's going around
    That he owns the biggest breakers yard this side of Mallaig town
    You can see him in the gloaming, towing wrecks from where they lie
    And he turns them into girders for the bridge across to Skye

    And it's a single track, he's in Mallaig
    And now he feels no pain
    He's dumped his car, he's in the bar
    He's steaming back by train

    On a single track you can't turn back
    The moral's very plain
    It's grand to visit Mallaig - it's safer by MacBrayne
    Don't go on the 8-3-0
    Don't go on the 8-3-0
    Don't go on the 8-3-0

 

Susannes Folksong-Notizen

  • [2002:] October 1995 - The Skye Bridge, funded by government and a consortium of private backers, is opened. Locals are furious that they will have to pay the highest road tolls in the world - £5.70 each way - and that the Scottish Office has instructed the state-subsidised ferry company Caledonian MacBrayne to stop running a boat service in competition. (Observer, 28 Apr)

Quelle: Scotland

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Henry
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27.10.1999, aktualisiert am 15.10.2003