I recently travelled on the Emirates Air Line cable car thingy, and to put it mildly, it's scary. I know engineers have checked the rope is more than strong enough to hold all the cars, but it's still a single point of failure.
According to this Pathe News clip, being nervous of this sort of thing, MAKES YOU A COWARD!
But, let's think about this. A cable car with open top, in Scotland? Who thought that was a good idea?
Fine in a bright sunny day perhaps, but what about in the wind and rain the area is known for?
The lift ran from the holiday camp to Heads of Ayr hotel. When this closed in 1970, you could still ride on the lift, but not get off at the top. The chair lift closed down in 1998 after 39 years of operation.
I like chair lifts. I've used the in the French Alps when mountain biking in the Morzine area, in the summer bikers use the ski lifts to access the mountains with the bikes front wheels hooked onto hooks fitted to the sides of the chairlifts (the only scary part - hoping that the bike doesn't fall off!). I found it to be a very quiet, relaxing and civilized form of transport, slowly being carried over Alpine meadows with just the clanking of the pulleys being the only mechanical noise, so one can enjoy the sound of grasshoppers and cowbells all around on the journey.
ReplyDeleteThen we all get off at the top and ride back down the mountain. Happy days!