A few weeks ago we had a severe challenge when our path was completely blocked on the
Madigan line.
But we had the right equipment and plan to get out of that one.
Last night
Melbourne had its biggest sept rainfall day since 1916, or 95 years ago, with consequent traffic issues.
After hearing from someone caught up in a largely unnecessary 6 hr highway traffic/Airport terminal wait to go nowhere, its raises the question about how prepared one needs to be for doing the everyday drive to work ?
Already this year in the city we have had to cross flooded roads, turn around over median strips, sneak up lanes, drive though faulty lights, up the odd footpath, remove a tree, all just to get
home.
Even had a potentially embrassing time with need to go to
toilet - luckily Patrols have rear
barn doors.
Sounds silly I guess but as our "100 year events" are coming much more frequently now we will probably all have to consider a whole range of scenario's more carefully.
We have learnt to carry a little food in the car, be able to make a cup of coffee, never go anywhere without a full sub tank etc etc.
Probably should carry a book to read - but for some people I suppose they may be caught short with medication issues !
Even read somewhere that carrying a couple of easily accessible aspirin to chew and swallow is a good idea, as its quite possible to have worrying chest pains and be caught on an overpass in plain site of a hospital and have no way at all to get help in a useful time.
One thing we have learnt is to watch the traffic and see what roads build up quickly when something goes wrong so as to avoid them when it counts.
We now have several alternate tracks and useful bypass waypoints loaded into our GPS such that we can not just avoid areas affected, but have intelligent bypasses in place.
Our experience has been that while many GPSes have some avoidance functionality, in practice you need to react fast and often can not effectively use marginal features.
Generally radio station warnings are also to late to be useful, and are often repeated long after the event has been cleared.
Last night for instance, we arrived at a traffic jam that had the effect of cutting access to a tollway, it meant a turn around and drive a couple of km away from our destination.
Pre-planning enabled us to pick a road that is busy in mornings but quieter in the evenings and provide
alternate tollway access.
As we drove past on the tollway a few minutes later we could see the same cars just stuck where we turned around
and ahead a stalled train crossing.
I guess we need to explore alternative routes and be prepared just as much in our cities as the bush.