Tag: Copper Coast Highway

Towards the Final Curtain F

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
The Blue Lake, Mount Gambier

Well, that’s Mount Gambier over for another year. The trip was interesting, to say the least. There was a fatal car smash at the dreaded junction of the Inter-state Highway and the Copper Coast Highway, with the rescue helicopter called in. The traffic was backed up for miles in all three directions.  The elderly female driver died at the scene with the husband air lifted out by the Rescue Helicopter. He died a few hours later in the Royal Adelaide Hospital. This is a dangerous intersection and I have had a couple of near misses myself with drivers coming off the Copper Coast Highway and either not seeing or ignoring the give way signs. The Inter-state has “right of way”.  The State Government and Federal Government have allocated funds to try and fix the problem but there seems to be no sense of urgency and the construction wont start until

You can see the buildup of traffic. The only alteration to this photograph is my erasing of the reg, plate

“sometime” in 2020. Still, as it’s not in Adelaide, no one worries much.   Between the detours and the delay, I was about two hours down.  Generally, I shop off for a break at Port Wakefield, but considering the volume of traffic going through because of the accident, delays and diversions, I decided against stopping and carried on to Adelaide. Thursday was not too bad with regard to the weather. I was able to get some shopping done in town and at the Central Market.

At about 10:30 I started to get a bit weary so to bed I went, only to be rudely wakened at 3am with thumping, banging and loud, continuous screaming. Next thing I saw the flashing blue and red reflection on the window blind (police car) – more banging- bit more screaming – a female screaming like a banshee, lots of voices, some sharing their innermost thoughts, then quiet. By then I was wide awake and although I sort of dozed off in fits and starts, I never really got to sleep again. It was either a domestic thing or a sex thing. Don’t know and never asked.  At 6am I was showered, dressed and booked out. By 6:30 I was on the road again – and it was raining.

The drive on the freeway to Tailem Bend was not one of the best drives I have had recently – it didn’t just rain, it poured, with the windscreen wipers sometimes having difficulty in coping.  Fortunately, there was not a lot of traffic on the freeway at that time in the morning, which was just as well, considering the conditions. First time I have ever driven in the daytime with headlights on.  By the time I reached Tailem Bend the rain has eased off – not stopped, just eased off.  I did, however, get my usual photograph of the River Murray. The Murray is looking ok,

The River Murray

but the dull overcast conditions gives you some idea of what the weather was like. More rain on the way to Mt. G. but at least  it was a lot lighter than on the freeway.   Mount Gambier was not so great this trip.  The cold and the rain caused a few electrical failures in Mt. Gambier, one of which was the heating in the hotel. Second concern I have had here, one last year and not another one this year. Perhaps time for a new hotel. One of our members is in Hospital and is not expected to survive. It is really a waiting period. All of his family are there, and no visitors are allowed, other than family. It has been a week since I returned from Mt. G. and I really expected to be called down to  Adelaide.

Fires continue to rage out of control in New South Wales and Queensland with five lives being lost. Here in South Australia we had a bush fire  in the bottom area of the peninsula outside Port Lincoln which was bad enough to put Port Lincoln  under threat.  Fortunately, that one  was brought under control and extinguished reasonably quickly.

The weather here at home has been cool to cold but that is about to change as the forecast is a rapid climb in temperature to 43c on Thursday.   Joy!!!

Going Nowhere

by edgar62, posted in House, Garden and Dogs
Traveling , just Traveling

Left home Friday morning – a bit later than usual – and headed off to Adelaide. I made sure that everything was set up for Annabell before I left. The drive down was uneventful until just outside Port Wakefield where a serious  crash had blocked part of the highway. My lane was clear – but slow and the other lane was backed up  from the intersection to Port Wakefield itself. This is where the Copper Coast Highway joins the Interstate Highway 1. It’s a bad  junction and has been the site of many accidents over the years.  Governments have  thrown money at the place in at attempt to  contain the flow of traffic but it’s still a problem and on holiday weekend is the site of a major bottleneck. The present government has proposed a solution and is willing to  fork out $90million to sort the problem. Most people believe that this also will not work until governments  do what needs to be done – build a new road that bypasses Port Wakefield altogether. But they wont do that. Despite being a  bottleneck, Port Wakefield heavily relies on the traffic for its survival. Because everything has to go through  PW,  there are more food outlets and service stations, bakery, repair shops than anywhere else and all the coaches coming from and going to the North, stop at PW ( BP Service Station)  for refreshments and a break. Therefore, despite all its problems, PW is a major supply and service center and a  bypass road that takes the traffic away would cause irreparable damage to the local economy and, to a lesser extent, the State Economy.

The remainder of the drive to Adelaide was quiet until Adelaide and city traffic. I managed to get most of the things Annabell wanted and did

The entrance to the hospital

some shopping for myself – mainly things from Officeworks for my diary – which – by the way is getting harder and harder to find. I think I said before that ordering things from the UK and the USA is getting too expensive because of the postage charges. Some time ago there were two outlets in Adelaide, but they have closed down.

The hot weather is coming back again for a bit but I don’t mind, it’s already done all the damage it can do and my plants are all dead. I did have a hope for a little while that it was only the outside leaves that had been burned by the sun and the plant and roots were still alive. I kept watering all the plants – even if they looked dead. Well, I now realize they are dead and no amount of water will  change that. So, the hot weather  kills the plants and the wind assaults us with 87,000 leaves.

RFDS Patient Transfer Whyalla

This has been a slightly frantic week with three fundraisers to organise, two unplanned medical appointments and a funeral to get ready for. Well, the hopes that my last two months as Secretary of the  Whyalla RFDS would be quite and trouble free, were always wishful thinking. The specialist in Adelaide has been unable to recommend any suitable medication for Annabell. There is another drug that she could take which would fit the bill, but the problem is that that has to be taken with a partner drug and the second drug is toxic for her. So, we both may have to go to Adelaide to visit a specialist who will teach us both how to administer insulin injections unless there is one visiting here. No idea when that will be. I may be an apology for the next church conference because Annabell  has an appointment to see the eye specialist and that’s when his next visit is.

Why “Going Nowhere”as the title?  Simply because Neil Sedaka’s song has been running through my head these last few weeks and that’s how I have been feeling sometimes – sort of running around in circles going nowhere. Well, I suppose it’s preferable to standing still and stagnating :o)

On the news this afternoon there was a major accident at the Highway 1 and the Copper Coast intersection this morning. Sadly two people were killed and a third one flown  by ambulance helicopter to Adelaide. Honestly this intersection really needs sorted out – soon..