I've driven in the ass crack of nowhere in the US, where there are lots of boringly long, straight roads, but it's different here. First of all, you can't relax. Ever. There is always the potential for animals darting out in front of you here, so you have to be very alert the whole time. Just looking at the road ahead isn't good enough - you have to be scanning the sides of the road the whole time to look for kangaroos and emus that might be resting there.
And that's the thing about these bloody kangaroos - they stand at the side of the road until you're just within hitting distance and then they hop out in front of you! They are so dumb! They are their own worst enemy - they blend in to the colour of the grass around them, they like to hang out at the side of the road, and they panic when you get close, which is why they suddenly hop out. It would upset me if I hit a kangaroo but that isn't the only problem - kangaroos are HUGE. If you hit one of them you're going to cause some serious damage to your car. A lot of the people that live in the outback have special bars on their cars just in case.
This isn't a rare occurence. There are dead kangaroos all over the roads and I had to slow down for ones by the side of the road during every single trip. They are most active when the sun is coming up/going down because it's cooler, and it means that driving at night is particularly dangerous. Once the sun goes down at around 8pm the roads get very quiet because of this (we ended up driving in the dark once by accident. Never again!)
And the dead kangaroos are a hazard too! They are so big, if you hit some roadkill you're going to damage your car then too!
Other than kangaroos, we have seen all of the following in the middle of the road:
snake, goanna, sheep, cows, emus, various other birds, possum... possibly others that I've forgotten.
Luckily it was only the possum that didn't survive these meetings! :/
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| No chance of a wrong turn around here |
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| Still never managed to get a picture of an actual kangaroo in the road because we're always concentrating too much on not hitting it! |
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| There are a lot of unfenced cattle areas. Cows have the right of way around here! |
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| Emus! |
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| Emus and kangaroos often have friends around, so if you see one you have to watch out for others running out |
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| Of course the biggest problem with driving out here is when your car has a tantrum! |
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| Spotting kangaroos is a lot easier when your co-pilot helps out... |
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