Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 13:08:17 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Roo's, Roadtrains, and Roadkill
Yesterday was the longest drive on this trip - 1320 km - across Queensland's
outback.
When I left MacKay it was a beautiful sunny day, and I couldn't help thinking
"Boy am I glad I'm here and not in U.S. or Europe freezing my butt off!" I had
(according to my estimate) 1270 km to drive -- turned out being 1320 -- so I
left quite early -- was on the road at 8:30.
Going North on Bruce Highway, the road is a little less scenic than the
southern section up from Brisbane, but still quite nice. There are a lot of
farms which I think were growing mango but not really sure about that. I did
see a lot of signs on the side of the road advertising "fresh mangoes for sale"
-- $5/bag or "you pick 'em, you keep 'em." I didn't have any. But I was tempted
for a while... Anyway, I had other things to do today, like drive an obstacle
course for instance! More on that later. This drive up to just south of
Townsville also had a few glimpses of the Pacific ocean (THIS SIDE of it), and
I was driving along, enjoying the scenery and listening to the live commentary
of the last day of the Australia-Pakistan cricket game, in which the Aussies
obliterated the Paks!
Then starting to head west... across the wild outback. Funny how the scenery
changes from lush tropical farmlands and forests to dry desert in no time at
all! Just a few kilometers inland, and it reminded me a lot of New Mexico in
the summer -- hot, dry desert ... red sand... small roads with a lot of
bumps... but with one significant difference: the 'roos.
That's kanga to all you folks north of the equator. I must have seen AT LEAST
about 20-25 kangaroos today. 6 of them were out and about in the evening. The
rest were all sleeping. They were all laying on the road or on the side of the
road, sleeping peacefully. Yes, sleeping. Trust me, they were sleeping. Along
with them, also "sleeping" on the road, were literally dozens of other small
animals and birds. Even the occasional cow. Many of them even had red paint on
them -- I can only assume that helps them sleep. Yeah... they were all
sleeping.
Yup -- a lot of wildlife in the desert -- and it's almost as wild as the
wildlife in Vancouver!
This road -- Flinders Highway -- is a lot like Hwy 50 through Nevada. In fact
I'd say it's even lonelier than the "Loneliest road in America". Both highways
have towns that are separated by roughly 100 miles, except the Flinders Hwy has
that for 900km (560 miles) up to Mt Isa, while Hwy 50 is only like that for
roughly 300 miles. And the Flinders Hwy has a lot fewer vehicles -- just a lot
of roadkill. Oh sorry, not roadkill -- sleeping animals.
Another distinction is the "roadtrain", something I vaguely remembered reading
about before coming here. But when you see these things, you'll know why
they're called roadtrains! Bigrig trucks with 4 - sometimes 5 - trailers
attached on the back... just chugging along the highway... and if you spot one
approaching you on a tiny road -- like the Flinders Hwy is in many places --
best thing to do is simply pull over on the shoulder (i.e. dried grass and
brush) and STOP until this monster has passed! Then wait for all the dust to
settle down, then continue driving. I learned all that the hard way, having had
a few close encounters!
Anyway, as the sun was going down I did see a few alive... er... awake...
kangaroos. Took a picture of one of them that was about 30 feet away (that's
just under 10 meters to all you folks south of the equator). He (or she) was
staring right at me, wondering what I was up to. I got a good shot of that one!
So now I'm in this relatively large metropolis called Mt Isa, near the
Queensland-Northern Territory border. Note: "relatively large metropolis" =
roughly 1/5th the size of Bakersfield. "near the border" = roughly 200
kilometers.
Last night I also passed by very near a town called Mackinlay (I think -- I
forget the name now) -- near Cloncurry. I heard on the "tourist radio" -- 88.0
FM -- that this is the home of the "Walkabout bar" from the movie Crocodile
Dundee. Well, I *COULD* have dropped by, but I didn't. By the way, "very near"
= about 80 km off the main highway; 160km round-trip.
I still don't have my bag yet - in fact haven't even been able to contact
Qantas all day yesterday! They open their offices in 12 more minutes so I'm
going to try again before checking out of this motel. But in all likelihood,
I'll probably have to buy some clothes today!
Today's drive is the 2nd-longest of this trip -- 1178 km up to Alice Springs --
the largest "city" in central Oz. So I better get going soon.
Ciao,
-me.
Along the Flinders Hwy:
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