Day 45

Day 45:

It was quite late when we left the beach for the day. We'd had loads of fun, but it had been quite tiring. We'd been in the sea, eaten ice cream, walked all the way around the town and drawn pictures in the sand. But now, it was already dark, and we weren't even back in England yet. With hours of driving ahead, we in the back thought that we could have a little sleep. That's when we heard the bad news.

"Oh, you are kidding me!" my dad exclaimed. "The road is closed!". The luminescent signs blocked our path onto the main road home. It seems like we may have left the beach too late. 

"Does that mean we are going to be lost?" I asked.

"Nooo, we won't get lost," my dad replied, with an alarming amount of confidence. "I've been studying the maps before we came out, I know another way home!" So, we relaxed in the back and tried to drift off to sleep again. There was less light on the minor roads, and we were going slower, so it was much easier. But then, we were suddenly awoken.

"Oh WHAT!" my dad cried. "This road is closed as well?! How stupid, they've blocked off England with all these roadworks!"

"Are you sure we aren't lost, dad?" I asked.

"No, we aren't lost; there must be a proper road back, there must! They can't block all of them."

A few minutes later, my dad found a way back. At least, that's what we thought until we stuck our full beams on, and it turned out we were in a gravel car park on a building site.

"We're lost, aren't we, dad?" I asked.

"... Yes." my dad replied.

"Don't worry dad," I said, "I've got Google Maps! We can use that to get home!"

Unfortunately, even Google didn't know about these road closures, so I had to manually operate it as a map. We were on real country roads now, with no lights or buildings to speak of. Under the cover of the trees, it was almost pitch black, with the only lights being our headlights, their reflections against signs, and my glowing phone screen. We couldn't sleep in the back now, I was fully concentrating on the directions, while my dad navigated the tricky, almost blind roads.

"Are you sure we aren't lost?" asked my dad.

"Yes," I replied. "I know where we are going, just so long as the battery on my phone holds out, it's on 25%."

We drove for another hour, seemingly only going deeper and deeper into nowhere, with only the road and nothing else showing on my map. If we ran out of fuel or something happened now, we'd be in real trouble. But then...

"Oh no," I said. "My signal is gone! It must be the trees!"

"So, we're lost, aren't we?" my dad asked.

"...Yes," I replied.