Welcome back to Sunday
Selections!
This once-a- week-meme
was originally begun by Kim of Frog Ponds Rock, as a way to showcase some of
the many photos we all take, but don't get around to showing on our blogs.
The rules are very
simple:-
1. post photos of your
choice, old or new, under the Sunday Selections title
2. link back to me,
River, somewhere in your post
3. leave me a comment so
that I know you've joined in and can come over and see what you've posted.
I usually go with a
theme for my Sunday Selections and this week I'm showing you the Gateway to Adelaide, a four way intersection about a half hour walk away from my home.
see that red dot in the middle? that's where we're going. I'm walking slightly uphill on the diagonal road there. Walking, walking, walking...
almost there.
standing at the intersection facing the hills, this is the South Eastern Freeway. the car on the right in the photo is in the turn off lane to Cross Road.
across from where I'm standing, and down a little way is The Colonial, a very old hotel which has been nicely maintained.
this is the stone wall along the final stretch of freeway before the intersection. along this stretch of road is where the huge semitrailers would come barreling down out of control and crashing because the drivers would ride their brakes, which would then burn out or fail, instead of gearing down for the steeper slope a bit higher up. Thankfully, measures have been taken to ensure drivers are now using lower gears and there hasn't been a crash for a while.
I walked a little way along the freeway to show you the original toll-house, long ago closed with the windows and door bricked in, it still stands on a small island between the up and down roads.
looking down Cross Road of to my left as I turned to face the city again. Have another look at the map above, you'll see which road this is.
I zoomed in a bit (okay, a lot) so you can see how long this road is, passing 8 suburbs on the right of the photo and 9 on the left.
a quick shot down Glen Osmond Road, the one I walked up, as I waited to cross for photos of Portrush Road.
Portrush Road from the intersection. Just above centre is a black square, that's a road sign and beyond that the road dips down so can't be seen.
a slightly better shot, taken from the centre island of the intersection. The islands are quite wide and safe to stand on. In daylight.
drivers coming down the freeway to Adelaide are greeted by this forest of concrete 'trees'. When they were being built many people had no idea what they were or why they were there. Many of us still don't know...I'll show these in greater detail next week.
standing on the Portrush Road corner, I saw this funky purple bus at the end of the freeway, as it turned into Portrush Road I discovered it was towing a very small aluminium dinghy loaded with fishing gear.
looking down Glen Osmond Road and zooming in to the city in the distance. Glen Osmond Road goes all the way to Pulteney Street which is within the city square mile.
I'm heading for home now, walking along Glen Osmond Road.
still walking...
there were bus stops along the way, but it was downhill going home so I didn't feel the need to cheat by waiting for a bus.
I'd started this walk fairly late in the afternoon, hoping that on the way home I'd be walking into a rosy/orange sunset. As you can see, that didn't happen, all I could see was a faint gold tint in the clouds.
paperbark trees always remind me of the dried out pages of a water-damaged book.
looking back towards the intersection which cannot be seen now, too far away; dusk is falling and cars have their lights on.
oh look, there's my street. I don't often come into it from this end.
looking down my street, walking, walking.
here is the jellybean roundabout, so called because it is more jellybean shape than round. Very close to home now and feeling glad to be here; my bladder felt like it was about to spring a leak (*~*) I'd been gone a little longer than originally planned.
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I'm going to join in with you.. My post will go live at 7am AEST. :)
ReplyDeletehttp://www.snoskred.org/2015/06/sunday-selections-week-24.html
I love the concrete trees. That area you've shown us today is one I visited a lot when I was an Adelaideian. :)
I cannot imagine crossing those intersections. The concrete trees are intriguing, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of them. We are having more and more roundabouts here in my part of the state. They make so much sense. Our last county engineer made them spacious; the current engineer prefers really small and tight ones for serious traffic control. They are so difficult of semi trailers to navigate, I don't understand his reasoning.
ReplyDeleteI remember that intersection vividly. In a way it was a relief to reach it after the steep descent but later we heard tales of the crashes there. I wonder if the toll booth was open when we first visited in the early 80s. The concrete things are intriguing.
ReplyDeleteAdd me to those who are intrigued by the concrete cigars... Which has me thinking about Joe Hockey.
ReplyDeletePulling my mind away from those images...
Love the paperbarks.
We are roundabout city here. Lots and lots and lots of roundabouts. Cheaper, but not as effective as traffic lights.
Now that was some walk! You must have felt great after that lengthy stroll...after you'd paid a urgent visit to the toilet, that is! :)
ReplyDeleteI can understand the bemusement of the locals when they first saw those concrete whatever-they-maybe! The council or whoever was responsible for "creating" them should've held a guessing/naming competition! Perhaps, as opposed to the paperbarks, they are concrete-barks. (I bet the passing dogs love them)! I prefer the paperbarks by both a country mile and a city mile!
Enjoy your week ahead, River....cuddles to Angel.
I was last in Adelaide before my daughter was born, she is 35 this year so it's been a while but I loved the breezes, the Adelaide Hills and the sleepy atmosphere and not much traffic looks like things have changed a bit, lots more traffic.
ReplyDeleteThat was a long walk, a hot cup of tea and a nap would be needed.
Merle.............
... Hi River..... I thoroughly enjoyed walking and discovering all the interesting things about this intersection.....
ReplyDeleteI love the old toll house and the concrete trees... the brick wall where the semis once crashed is beautiful.....
I liked your Wednesday words story ... hope the little boy recovers from the accident..
Have a good week....
Hugs... Barb xxx
Interesting concrete 'trees', I'd hate to run into them though.
ReplyDeleteMy Sunday Selection post is up, by the by.
I love that stone wall, the colours are gorgeous but you walk too far and my foot is sore now and I could do with a pee.
ReplyDeleteSnoskred; hooray for joining in! I'll pop over in a minute. I'm not a fan of the concrete trees, they do have some significance. I'll google a bit and see what I can find out.
ReplyDeleteJoanne; the intersections are controlled by traffic lights, go when the little man is green and you are safe. Most of our roundabouts are large, since we have so many buses that need to navigate them.
Andrew; there weren't many crashes early on, that's a fairly recent thing with many trucking companies telling their drivers to get there on time, get there first or whatever reason and the newer younger drivers not being properly taught the correct way to manage a steep descent by gearing down, so they relied on their brakes. There was a lot of conversation in the newspapers as well as on TV; now there are signs at the top of the hill warning drivers to gear down and a fair amount of policing done with cop cars regularly riding that road.
I believe the toll booth closed long before the 80s, I don't remember it ever being open even before the freeway was built.
Elephant's Child; Joe who? (*~*)
Some of our roundabouts are/were controlled by traffic lights because many Adelaideans didn't have a clue how to use them apparently. They're getting the hang of it now, but geez, we've had them for years. Years!!
Lee; I did feel great after the walk, but woke up with aching legs this morning, there'll be deep heat on these thighs later. I used to walk that distance and more with ease; probably I shouldn't sit on my bum by the computer so much eh?
There is a meaning behind those concrete trees, each has different markings and there is writing on a couple of them. I'll see what I can find out.
Cuddles right back to Remy and Sharma.
Merle; still a bit of a sleepy atmosphere, especially on Sunday mornings when nothing opens until 11am, but there is much more traffic now; I can sit at any bus stop in town and there won't be a single minute with no passing traffic. Doesn't anybody stay home anymore?
Barbara; I love that stone wall too. It isn't continuous, every few metres there is a section of very large polished granite tiles.
Don't worry about Troy in the story, he gets better.
Jac; the concrete trees are set back a bit from the road, there's a wide foot path between them and the road too. I'll pop over and see your Sunday Selections in a minute.
JahTeh; the colours are gorgeous aren't they? I'd love a wall like that around my home. My feet are fine, but my thighs are complaining quite a bit.
What a wonderful walk you had (I do envy you) and thanks so much for sharing such wonderful photos of your city.
ReplyDeleteI have often read of those dreadful truck crashes in Adelaide and glad they have taken steps to prevent them.
Those concrete 'trees' intrigue me and I look forward to reading more about them
That stone wall is very attractive and so well done too.
I like the trees in your street. Ours is called an avenue which means "tree lined street" but nary a tree to be found. So much for nomenclature!!!
P.S. Did the book arrive OK?
Mimsie; *snap* I left a comment at your post letting you know the book arrived safely.
ReplyDeleteThose truck crashes were awful and could all have been prevented by simply ensuring each new driver was properly trained regarding gears etc. More than one company was at fault too.
I think Avenue sounds much nicer than Street, but it must have trees to be a proper Avenue.
My thighs weren't too happy this morning after their effort yesterday, but several hours with a hot water bottle has eased them.