In the end, those trips took them so long that they only made it back to Blighty about a day or so ahead of those who relaxed their way through the disruption. Pretty funny, really.
That reminds me on an experiment that was done a few years ago. I forget what the precise conditions were, but basically Group A had to drive cross-country under stress, trying to cut corners off the journey, dice with the speed limit, and save every second they could.
Group B had to get to the same destination, but were to proceed at a relatively leisurely pace.
The average difference in journey times was negligible, something like 3 minutes saved per hour of journey. Some people in the stressed group also took longer than average as the gambles they took during the journey sometimes backfired.
Funny to be hearing about this. I went to college about 5.5 hours from where my parents lived, and for the first few years I didn't have my own car.
More than once I ended up getting a ride with one or more people who seemed really impatient to be on their way as soon as possible. Especially in Winter there was never any chance that we were going to beat the sunset (one of the few things that can seriously motivate me to try to leave earlier) and the perceived rush only tended to make me stressed out and grumpy.
When I got my own car and started being the driver rather than the passenger I tried to be as laissez-faire about it as possible. My philosophy was that the trip was going to take hours and we were going to get home after dark regardless; stressing out about it would be pointless and possibly counterproductive.
Put succinctly - I'd rather have a fun and relaxed trip than a fast but stressful one.
