stranger than fiction

About 10 years ago, I was out on a training ride on my bicycle.  I had a usual route that took me off the beaten track onto roads only lightly used by cars and other traffic.  The traffic on one road was so light that it was unusual to see any traffic on it at all.

As I was cycling along a deserted stretch of this road I became aware of a car sat just over my right shoulder (I should point out that we drive on the left here in the U.K.).  The road was dead straight and flat with no obstructions to prevent an overtake so I gestured for the car to pass me.  But it didn’t and I could still sense it there; too close for my liking.

So, I turned around to make eye contact with the driver and again gesture for he or she to overtake.  I was startled by the car: a pea green Audi with a registration dating from the early 70’s.  And it was in perfect condition.  So perfect in fact it looked like it was brand new.  Anyway, I waved at who I could now make out was a female driver to pass before turning back around to see where I was going.  A split second later, and no longer sensing that the car was there, I turned around again to find it had completely vanished.

I say “vanished” as there was nowhere for the car to have pulled over and it did not overtake me.  I swung around and cycled back along the route I had just taken but there was no sign of the car.  I also checked for any junctions or verges that the car could have pulled into.  There were none.

I was by now quite spooked.  The car had just vanished into thin air.

Now, I don’t believe in ghosts and am incredibly sceptical when it comes to the paranormal.  But an old car?  That looked like a new car?  On an old road?  That had just disappeared?

What makes this more spooky was the road itself.  It used to be a major trunk road, and for years people who used the road or lived along its route campaigned for it to be widened or by-passed entirely as it was so dangerous.  In fact, at one time it was one of the deadliest roads in the U.K. with all too regular fatal accidents.

When I got home I tried to look up details of fatalities perhaps involving a woman and an Audi but no luck.  I was however, able to identify the car such was the detail and clarity I saw it with.  It was an early 70’s Audi 100.

ghost car?

I’m still sceptical when it comes to anything paranormal, but this really spooked me back then to such an extent that I didn’t cycle that road (alone at least) for some time. 

And, 10 years later, it still spooks me to this day.