This is the first point where you’ve got to be very awake - even though you’ve just been sitting on an airplane for eight or more hours, your body thinks it’s the small hours of the morning and you’re six hours sleep short. You have to look to the right for approaching traffic, not the left! Be careful, they really do drive on the left over there.
Having found your car in the car park (not on the parking lot) you open the door and find there’s no steering wheel, no pedals and no instruments - in fact they’re on the right side of the vehicle not the left. That can be quite an adjustment for a sleepy and jet-lagged driver.
You get the engine (motor) started and, very carefully, you ease your way out into the morning rush hour traffic. OK so far, its one-way circulation but you can’t see what’s going on around you - you’re looking in the wrong place the rear-view mirror.
In just a few short minutes you’re on the Motorway (freeway) M23 and heading for Central London - you’re trying to remember to keep to the left (along with a few other rules such as no passing on the inside). The speed limit is 70 but you’re lucky if you can manage 40 because the roads are so busy. Just relax; you’ll get the hang of it. If not, there are other options.
So what is the alternative? Gatwick Airport has its own railway (railroad) station and there’s a train into Central London roughly every ten minutes. An added bonus is that it takes half the time you’d need by car. Another option for those not up to tackling new road experiences; forget renting a car - get off Virgin Atlantic’s airplane and onto Virgin Rail’s Gatwick Express - go by train.
