9 Hours, 370 Miles, All in One Shopping Trip

Granted that roads in Australia are difficult and also accepted that Australians love to just get up in their cars and take long drives, but this is really taking all that a little too far. One elderly Australian man tested his love of driving for nine long hours, over a stretch of about 600 kms (370 miles) before accepting that he had gotten lost and needed help.

81 year old Eric Stewart, who was visiting Yass, a country town in New South Wales left the house in quest of a newspaper, on Monday morning. Taking one wrong turn on the highway left him clueless and lost. It was nearly 8 hours later that he asked the Victoria police for help. When asked about the incident, he had this to say, "I just went out on the road to have a drive, a nice peaceful, quiet drive. I didn't know where I was going but I knew it was somewhere, and with a bit of luck, I would eventually find my wife again."

His wife Claire got quite worried during his unaccounted for time away and tried to reach him on his cell phone. She claimed that her husband suffered from slight dementia, and that had made her worried about his whereabout even though she was confident of his safe driving abilities. Her telephone conversation with her spouse yielded her the information that he was somewhere around a Westgate Bridge sign, the famous Melbourne landmark.

Stewart finally asked for help at a local petrol station, from Victorian Police Senior Constable Clayton Smith. Questioning him about his adventure gave the police something to smile about as Stewart nonchalantly claimed that he had continued driving despite being lost because he just loved driving.

The 81 year old man even turned down a GPS navigation system suggestions saying that if he had one of those he would never be able to get lost again. Everyone was quite relieved when the old man was reunited with his family, late on Wednesday, after his little road trip that lasted over 600 kms and took around 9 hours. Let's face it, we all wish to be able to get away like this every once in a while.