Roads and Driving

Getting used to driving on the left hand side was relatively easy. All the roundabouts and google maps interpretation of them was a little more confusing.

The first big general impression I get is that everyone is driving about 20 kph faster than what I am confortable with. Most two lane highways are 110, school zones are 80.

In the outback we have seen one lane bitumen roads where to pass a vehicle both drivers have to put their wheels in the gravel or sometimes mud shoulder. Speed limit 110. 

If you meet a truck or road train you have to get completely off the highway. Road trains are trucks with one , two , three or four trailers to a maximum length of 67 meters.

If you head across a pedestrian crossing expecting the vehicles to stop you will end up in the hospital or dead. While having coffee in a small town we watched a man pushing a wheelchair stopped at a pedestrian crossing. He waited for about thirty cars before someone stopped.

Then there are flood zones. On a perfectly flat section of road with not a creek ravine or river in sight there will be a small dip with measuring sticks measuring the depth up to thee meters .

On some farms we noticed big mounds of dirt plowed up and wondered what they were for. Well when it floods,, these become island havens for the livestock.

So far we have been lucky and not had any rain that lasted longer than 2 or 3 hours. Even then some puddles were flush with the road surface.