Rhonda Bracey: At Random

I was up at 4:30am, on the road at 5:30am so that I could be at PER airport for a 9:20am flight. I allow 2 hours for the drive (sometimes it only take 1.75 hours), + 2 hours at the airport before the flight. Thank goodness I did that today!

I knew the traffic on Kwinana Freeway would be awful at that hour of the morning, so exited at Thomas Rd to Nicholson, then Google Maps wanted me to go via Rowley Rd to Tonkin Hwy. Cool. Tonkin is a straight run to the airport, with a few traffic lights to impede progress. It was all good and it looked like I’d make it in just over 1.5 hours. Neat detour, Google Maps!

Until it wasn’t. I got to the Gosnells Rd lights and it looked like there was a hold-up in the traffic. Slowly got past those lights and came to a stop, with the occasional creep forward. The time was ticking away. 7.10, 7.15, 7.20… and we weren’t moving. 6 police cars and 3 tow tricks had sped up the emergency lane (no ambulance or fire that I saw), but still nothing was happening. There was obviously an accident, but I couldn’t see anything from where I was. What to do? How long do I wait? It’s not like I had a plane to catch. Oh wait! I did!!! I decided to pull it at 7:25, chucking a U-turn across the median strip (fortunately, there was no vegetation, curbs, or soft sand to impede me), and heading back to the lights (where there were more police detouring the traffic), and taking a magical mystery tour through the back streets of Gosnells to Kelvin Rd then back onto Tonkin ahead of the accident.

From there it was a straight run to the airport and I made it with less than an hour to go before my flight — the edge of my comfort zone!

(Memo to myself for future trips — stop at the Service Centre near Safety Bay Rd for a pee break, even I think I don’t need it! It’s just over an hour from home, and I thought I’d be fine, but adding in an extra hour to the trip because of the accident on Tonkin meant that it was an uncomfortable last part of the journey, and I sure didn’t want to risk sneezing!)