So. last night was the last speedway meeting of the year at Nowra Speedway. It was only a club show but the holiday season meetings are always big so I knew it was going to be good. Gates open at 1500, racing starts at 1800. I usually leave in time to get there and have an hour and a half or so patrolling the pits, getting the gossip and making sure that what is written in the programme is accurate. The nature of speedway where drivers can virtually turn up and race without having to submit entry forms, etc. usually means that the printed programme is, at best, a rough guide so that time snivelling around the pits gives me the “skinny” I need to be able to sounds reasonably authoritative in the commentary box come race start time.
As well as this, I knew that, during the Christmas holiday season, the traffic heading south is always very heavy and traffic jams along the route are the exception rather than the rule. Looking at the news had already told me that the Gerringong bypass project had caused an 11km traffic gridlock on Boxing Day so I figured that I had better start out to the track earlier than usual. My plan, whenever the traffic is bad, is to go as far as Gerringong (please fell free to refer to the map above, there will be a short quiz at the end to see if you have been paying attention), then cut through the town and follow the coast road, through Gerroa, past Seven Mile Beach and pop out at North Nowra just before the bridge over the Shoalhaven River. Traffic is usually much lighter on this route and it avoids the town of Berry that is a major bottleneck during peak times.
So, at 1300, I set out from Wollongong. Just south of Albion Park the RTA illuminated sign on the roadside proclaimed that there was a 6km traffic jam at Gerringong bends. “No problem,” I thought to myself, “I’ll be off the highway and onto the back road by then,” so confidence was high. It remained so until I got to Bombo, just north of Kiama (again, see map) Just as we passed the railway station the traffic ground to a halt. For 40 minutes I inched my way up the hill past Kiama and, nearly 45 minutes later I was still trapped in total gridlock west of the town having made hardly an progress at all. I knew that I was in trouble.
So. a bit of lateral thinking kicked in. A U Turn when the traffic allowed and I headed back north towards Kiama. Just before the town I turned off and took the back road through Jamberoo. From Jamberoo I headed west, up the Jamberoo Mountain Road and joined the Illawarra highway just east of Roberston. Through the town and then a left turn down Pearson’s Lane took me to Fitzroy Falls, way up on the escarpment. From there it was down Barrengary Mountain and into Kangaroo Valley, up Cambewarra Mountain and down the other side and onto the Cambewarra Road which pops back out onto the Princes Highway at Bomaderry, just north of Nowra. Traffic was light throughout the whole journey and I cruised along at the speed limit without being held up at all. From the roundabout at Bomaderry it was just a few kilometres through the town itself and into the speedway, 2 hours and twenty minutes after leaving home.
Now, that journey straight down the highway usually takes me less than an hour and racing cars that I had seen on trailers mired in the traffic jam at Kiama arrived at the track well AFTER me. So, even though I had taken the long way round, I still got there quicker and with much less stress. Speaking to others at the track it became evident that I hadn’t been the only one who had used a bit of lateral thinking and had taken the long way down.
The meeting itself was a cracker and i am looking forward to next Saturday night, the 63rd running of the Australian Speedcar Grand Prix. And, I am going to leave early again, just in case.