Sierra Madre mountains at Night Driving, Raining, in Super Thick Fog, at 5 feet visibility. Insane.
Yesterday afternoon we drove up the Sierra Madre mountains for an ocular inspection of possible camping grounds in 3 separate sites. One in Sierra Madre Hotel, one in Pranjetto Hills and one in Tanay Adventure Camp. The adventure camp seemed most promising. But we wound up driving down too late, at 6 pm, and we even passed by the last top of the mountain vegetable / fruit outlet.
The rains poured on. What was worse was when the fog rolled in. And I had never imagined fog could be this THICK. It was 5 feet visibility. The only thing I could see was the hood of our Fortuner and the double yellow line markers in the middle of the road and probably the white marker in the right side of the road. I could not even see the shoulder of the road.
The lights were useless. High beam just enhanced the thickness of the fog. Low beam was no good as well. Turning off the headlights were better and just let the fog lamps on and that gave me 5 feet visibility. I turned on the emergency lights to flash on and off so we could be seen by other drivers.
My driver was a passenger by this time as he was tired and sleepy. Our senior grandma kept quiet at back as she knew the danger. We could not stop, we might get bumped at the back. We could not stop at a shoulder, we could not see the shoulder and might fall of the cliff! We could not make a u-turn as there is even more danger taking a u-turn and get bumped so we plodded on for 30+ minutes in the thick soup. The 5 children with us were kept busy watching a movie in an i-pad… at least they could not contribute to the fear of driving in that thick fog.
We made it. Luckily. But the next time I reach night fall in the mountains of the Sierra Madres, I will just have to check into one of the hotels and call it a night.