Definitely some weird stories.
Thinking back - i have 1 experience that can be considered "similar" and strange as well.
It was uni days; back in Australia in 2000 - it was the mid year break and 3 friends and I decided: right...we shall go on road trip and drive to Sydney and meet up with another uni mate of ours. We were in a small university town called Churchill - some ~160km east of Melbourne. The drive to Sydney was going to be almost 1000km. We were planning to meet our friend in Sydney at his place within the day - and it was already lunchtime. Thinking that we had to rush as the drive was going to be at least 12 hours...we piled into the car and started driving out of town.
It was the days before GPS and smartphones - and i was pouring over the map looking for highways or shortcuts - when i saw a highway on the map called the "Omeo Highway" that cut through the Victorian alps (not very tall alps, and max elevation is about 1500m). It was kind of winter; but it rarely snows and doesn't get too cold in Victoria at sea level. The normal route to Sydney is a coast hugging highway. This highway, in theory at least was like a hypotenuse of a triangle, cutting through the center and saving us a few hours. None of us had ever been on it and we expected it to be like other highways and paved - and off we went.
The turnoff to the Omeo highway came - and we turned into it. Next thing we know after driving a while it becomes a dirt road. Then we realized that this must have been one of those alpine dirt road"highways". It was too late to turn back, so we kept going. Then it was foggy all over and we could hardly see the road. Finally as the elevation started to increase marginally - we hit roads covered with snow and the car was slip sliding (it was an old Japanese sedan and not built for off-road). By now it was dusk and we were well and truly late. We knew we were not going to make to Sydney within the day - and by this time we were really wondering where we were going to end and sleep for the night. There were some towns along the highway - but we weren't exactly sure where we were along it exactly - because we only had a map, and it was hard to estimate as there were hardly any road signs on the highway or milestones.
Sometime at 8-9pm the highway ended - and we sort of got into a small town. There were houses and driveways, and a few lights - but hardly anybody around. Then we saw a sign saying "Pub & Hotel". We parked and walked right into the door. It was the most strange feeling ever. Here were four of us (students from Malaysia & Singapore) - and as we walked in ....pin drop silence. There were about 15 people milling about and having their drinks, but they all stopped and looked at us. It felt like we had crashed the monster's ball or something. As we walked from the door to the bar counter. The silence and eyes just followed us all the way. There was nice lady at the bar that confirmed they had rooms available for the night. Then she asked "What are you guys doing here? " We told her we were on our way to Sydney - to which she replied "You guys must be really lost". That was it and no offers of advice or guidance of how to get back on our route to Sydney.
We piled into the room upstairs - with all of us feeling eerie and strange. Later we heard the conversations finally continue downstairs. We hardly slept that night, spoke a lot about how strange this little town was and the Omeo highway. We woke up from very disturbed sleep at sunrise and we left. We totally felt unwelcome there and were wondering where was all the Australian hospitality that we were used to.
We finally made it to Sydney later in the day - and i can't remember the name of the town, or how we drove out, or even the check out process from the Pub. It all seems a bit fuzy now, 20+ years later - but i do clearly remember the very vivid entrance into the pub till today.
p.s right after finishing this post - i googled Omeo highway and there was this PDF about interesting tales of Omeo Highway
Thinking back - i have 1 experience that can be considered "similar" and strange as well.
It was uni days; back in Australia in 2000 - it was the mid year break and 3 friends and I decided: right...we shall go on road trip and drive to Sydney and meet up with another uni mate of ours. We were in a small university town called Churchill - some ~160km east of Melbourne. The drive to Sydney was going to be almost 1000km. We were planning to meet our friend in Sydney at his place within the day - and it was already lunchtime. Thinking that we had to rush as the drive was going to be at least 12 hours...we piled into the car and started driving out of town.
It was the days before GPS and smartphones - and i was pouring over the map looking for highways or shortcuts - when i saw a highway on the map called the "Omeo Highway" that cut through the Victorian alps (not very tall alps, and max elevation is about 1500m). It was kind of winter; but it rarely snows and doesn't get too cold in Victoria at sea level. The normal route to Sydney is a coast hugging highway. This highway, in theory at least was like a hypotenuse of a triangle, cutting through the center and saving us a few hours. None of us had ever been on it and we expected it to be like other highways and paved - and off we went.
The turnoff to the Omeo highway came - and we turned into it. Next thing we know after driving a while it becomes a dirt road. Then we realized that this must have been one of those alpine dirt road"highways". It was too late to turn back, so we kept going. Then it was foggy all over and we could hardly see the road. Finally as the elevation started to increase marginally - we hit roads covered with snow and the car was slip sliding (it was an old Japanese sedan and not built for off-road). By now it was dusk and we were well and truly late. We knew we were not going to make to Sydney within the day - and by this time we were really wondering where we were going to end and sleep for the night. There were some towns along the highway - but we weren't exactly sure where we were along it exactly - because we only had a map, and it was hard to estimate as there were hardly any road signs on the highway or milestones.
Sometime at 8-9pm the highway ended - and we sort of got into a small town. There were houses and driveways, and a few lights - but hardly anybody around. Then we saw a sign saying "Pub & Hotel". We parked and walked right into the door. It was the most strange feeling ever. Here were four of us (students from Malaysia & Singapore) - and as we walked in ....pin drop silence. There were about 15 people milling about and having their drinks, but they all stopped and looked at us. It felt like we had crashed the monster's ball or something. As we walked from the door to the bar counter. The silence and eyes just followed us all the way. There was nice lady at the bar that confirmed they had rooms available for the night. Then she asked "What are you guys doing here? " We told her we were on our way to Sydney - to which she replied "You guys must be really lost". That was it and no offers of advice or guidance of how to get back on our route to Sydney.
We piled into the room upstairs - with all of us feeling eerie and strange. Later we heard the conversations finally continue downstairs. We hardly slept that night, spoke a lot about how strange this little town was and the Omeo highway. We woke up from very disturbed sleep at sunrise and we left. We totally felt unwelcome there and were wondering where was all the Australian hospitality that we were used to.
We finally made it to Sydney later in the day - and i can't remember the name of the town, or how we drove out, or even the check out process from the Pub. It all seems a bit fuzy now, 20+ years later - but i do clearly remember the very vivid entrance into the pub till today.
p.s right after finishing this post - i googled Omeo highway and there was this PDF about interesting tales of Omeo Highway
