I was putting this insight to The Boss, who has been on about potholes a lot recently. It is long after “peak potholes” has passed, I know, but the pesky puddles of the road have finally worn down his patience.
Although I had to admit, his latest pothole to grizzle about was a serious one. More like a sink hole.
“Look at this, General,” he called out, when the Nar Nar Goon pothole came up on the television news Sunday night.
A Pakenham woman was telling the ABC reporter she will struggle to afford repairs to her tyres after hitting a "half-a-metre" deep pothole.
She and many others. The cavernous pothole forced more than 20 cars to pull over on the Princes Highway at Nar Nar Goon on Saturday evening.
The drivers were forced into the emergency lane of the highway amid heavy rain to change their tyres or wait for help.
But with low visibility because of the heavy rain, drivers who had pulled over were frightened of further accidents, as you can imagine.
Another driver said she was on her way home to Warragul when she hit the pothole around 4pm, and it was 10pm before she could get going again.
In the meantime, crews arrived to fill the pothole and left, leaving some drivers still waiting for roadside assistance.
The Department of Transport and Planning said crews returned the next morning to repair the pothole properly.
“We didn’t see anything quite like that, General,” The Boss said. “But we saw plenty.”
He and the missus had gone up to Yarrawonga Friday, dodging increasing potholes once they passed Katamatite, which a friend had warned him about.
But when heading further on to Rutherglen on Saturday, they decided to take the back road from Mulwala to Corowa for a change of scenery. In New South Wales of course.
“Good decision, General. Beautiful road – not a pothole in sight.”
The Boss couldn’t get over it. Coming back home Sunday on the Victorian side to Yarrawonga, they were laughing, pothole-to-pothole, about the difference.
They surmised that maybe the Mulwala-Corowa road was just a one-off, a chance choice that made Victoria look bad.
So they agreed to test it again. They hadn’t been to Berrigan since last century, so they abruptly diverted, heading across the Murray river and north from Mulwala.
“Another good decision, General” he said. “A beautiful wide road running through those gently rolling hills of canola and grain. On behalf of Victoria, I’m embarrassed.”
He made his point. Woof!
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