Driving in Stralia

 After Eungella NP I really got stuck into the driving part of my road trip. Australia is a large country, filled with a lot of unoccupied space, even along the coast, especially in Queensland. I'm quite accustomed to driving on the left side of the road at this point, and even used to going left around round-a-bouts, and even more surprisingly, I almost never try to get in the wrong side of the car to drive, which took me many months to learn when I moved to New Zealand. So I'm picking things up pretty quick, but there are a few things that I find quite different still.

My number one biggest annoyance with driving here isn't actually the driving, its the fueling up. It's kinda odd here... firstly, when you pull up to a gas pump, you don't need your credit card to get gas into your car. You just pull up and put the pump in your car and fill up, I don't know what stops people from just stealing the gas and driving away... I guess they can probably track your plates or something, but it does seem odd, but then the annoying part is you HAVE to go inside. I've seen a few pumps that have a credit card reader outside, but I haven't seen a pump that has a working credit card reader outside. Every time you have to fill up gas you have to go in the service station to pay. Which I find inconvenient and annoying.

Another thing about driving here are there are a lot of speed cameras,  I've been told the police are told not to waste their time on speeding tickets, but there are enough speed cameras, and not all marked, that it keeps most people in check. I know I had that happen in New Zealand as well, where I would be driving down the highway going 5-10 over and get a ticket a month or two later. No speeding here cause I don't need any tickets showing up in the mail. Additionally, they take their no texting and driving very seriously here and use cameras to determine if you are texting, someone I know got a $1000 ticket because her phone was on her lap while she was driving, so I'll be keeping it a long way from my lap that is for sure.

There are a number of positives to driving here though. Firstly, there are a ton of rest stops. I'm not sure if it's just because in Queensland its often a few hours between towns, but every 30-45 minutes there is a rest stop and there are tons of signs that tell you to 'be safe and have a rest'. Some are simple rest stops with just some picnic tables and bathrooms, some have gas and a little shop, and some are just a place to pull over and have a nap, but I do find it interesting. Similarly, there are not very many billboards, but half of them are by the government telling you to take a rest, or my favorite ones, trivia questions. There will be signs that say 'Do Trivia questions, Stay alert, Stay alive' and as you drive there will be a billboard that says 'whats the state bird of Queensland' and 5 minutes down the road you learn its the 'brogla' or the tallest mountain, the oldest bridge, etc. I think it's nice to have these little distractions along the way. 

Anyway, I've covered a lot of ground in the last couple of days, the roads are surrounded mostly by beautiful undeveloped grasslands with a canopy of eucalyptus trees, and there are not many other drivers on the road, making it quite a pleasant, if long, drive.


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