I’m loving having a car again, it’s opened up a whole new world for me. After not driving much for 5 years I expected I’d be a bit rusty and even a bit nervous but that wasn’t the case at all. I discovered that my instincts and reactions are as sharp as they ever were. I thought that if anything perhaps I’m a more relaxed and sedate driver these days, but that proved to be wrong when I got stuck behind an idiot in heavy traffic. Nothing’s changed there, I’m still me.
One of the first things I did was take the car for a long drive to find out everything I could about it, I headed to Victor Harbour, about an hour south of where I live. It’s normally very pretty countryside, a patchwork of natural forests and vineyards, but the weather was horrid.
Granite Island is just a couple of hundred metres off shore and it used to be home to one of the largest colonies of Fairy Penguins in the country, but not any more. Conservationists keep asking why they’re declining so rapidly, to me the answer’s very obvious. When I was growing up here access to that island closed at 4:30 every afternoon and any dogs taken on to that island were shot, even if they were on a leash. Today there’s a huge commercial tourism visitor’s centre on the island and they light up the place with floodlights late in to the night so people can see the penguins, and they wonder why the penguins are disappearing. Commercial tourism is always the death of natural wonders.
Today I had to take the car back to the dealer so that he could finish some repairs we agreed on when I bought it. While that was happening I went for a wander along the Port Road. It’s a bit of an anomaly that you won’t see in many cities around the world.
Google Maps
It’s a large road, 3 generously wide lanes either side plus bike lanes, and a 35 metre wide median strip down the middle. It’s far from being one of Adelaide’s busiest roads, why is it so big? Adelaide is one of the few planned cities in the world, no settler was allowed to even pitch a tent until Colonel Light had finished surveying and mapping out his city plan.
The port is 11 Km (7 miles) from the city centre and when that road was first mapped out it was designed to be a major freight route. It’s width is the minimum width in which you can turn around a full bullock team and wagons, and the median strip down the middle was originally slated to become a canal for horse drawn barges. By the time the city grew big enough to start requiring barges the internal combustion engine had been invented and the idea became irrelevant, so the narrow strip of parkland down the middle remains.
And in my wandering I noticed a strange looking church and had to get a better look, it’s Serbian.
One of the first things I did was take the car for a long drive to find out everything I could about it, I headed to Victor Harbour, about an hour south of where I live. It’s normally very pretty countryside, a patchwork of natural forests and vineyards, but the weather was horrid.
Granite Island is just a couple of hundred metres off shore and it used to be home to one of the largest colonies of Fairy Penguins in the country, but not any more. Conservationists keep asking why they’re declining so rapidly, to me the answer’s very obvious. When I was growing up here access to that island closed at 4:30 every afternoon and any dogs taken on to that island were shot, even if they were on a leash. Today there’s a huge commercial tourism visitor’s centre on the island and they light up the place with floodlights late in to the night so people can see the penguins, and they wonder why the penguins are disappearing. Commercial tourism is always the death of natural wonders.
Today I had to take the car back to the dealer so that he could finish some repairs we agreed on when I bought it. While that was happening I went for a wander along the Port Road. It’s a bit of an anomaly that you won’t see in many cities around the world.
Google Maps
It’s a large road, 3 generously wide lanes either side plus bike lanes, and a 35 metre wide median strip down the middle. It’s far from being one of Adelaide’s busiest roads, why is it so big? Adelaide is one of the few planned cities in the world, no settler was allowed to even pitch a tent until Colonel Light had finished surveying and mapping out his city plan.
The port is 11 Km (7 miles) from the city centre and when that road was first mapped out it was designed to be a major freight route. It’s width is the minimum width in which you can turn around a full bullock team and wagons, and the median strip down the middle was originally slated to become a canal for horse drawn barges. By the time the city grew big enough to start requiring barges the internal combustion engine had been invented and the idea became irrelevant, so the narrow strip of parkland down the middle remains.
And in my wandering I noticed a strange looking church and had to get a better look, it’s Serbian.
