Sometimes
Submitted: Friday, Feb 07, 2014 at 21:35
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Vesko P
Sometimes I just get in my Freelander 2 and drive until I am at least a thousand kilometres away. I don’t stop – while cruising on top of the speed limits, I nibble snacks, drink coffee and very often the destination is not important. I fall into some kind of a driving trance, the world as I know it disappears and all my senses are focused on the road.
I cannot explain the pleasure I get from the endless driving hours, sitting in otherwise comfortable
seat of my Landie. After all, it is tiring and expensive with the current prices of fuel, especially when I have to fill up again after some 700 km. It feels like I paid a hundred dollars five minutes ago and I have to pay another hundred again.
I often wander why I enjoy it so much. There is something in the movement perhaps, the constant change of space. And I suspect it’s also because when I travel like this life is simple – I know where in the car I packed every single item that I’ll need for the next few days and I don’t need much, it is easy to grasp all the elements of my immediate existence. This gives me I guess, the sense that I am in full control of my destiny. Everything depends on me and if I make a mistake, I would blame only myself.
Vesko at
Rainbow Beach.
Reply By: Member - PJR (NSW) - Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 08:14
Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 08:14
Mum, Dad, my brothers and I would just get in the car and let it take us where the traffic was the least. That was when I became addicted.
My wife is much the same. We will get in the car and just go for a drive. Once we went as far as
Surfers Paradise for a milkshake and then just turn around and come back (we lived in
Sydney then!!!!!) . Just the pleasure of being in our own little world inside the car and watch this great wide land pass.
Yes. There were those nights when it was too hot to sleep. That was before domestic airconditiomers for you younguns.
Right now our interest is in destinations quite a way away from
home but the drive there and back, all-be-it non stop, is still as pleasurable as it was back in those family 1940+ drives in the old Armstrong Sidley with Mum and Dad. (says Phil smiling).
Phil
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Follow Up By: SDG - Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 11:24
Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 11:24
I remember doing similar when I first got my license. Have been known to drive to
Adelaide from Wagga, just to get a coffeee, then drive back
home. Can't do that anymore. My body thinks it requires sleep more often.
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Reply By: Echucan Bob - Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 10:36
Saturday, Feb 08, 2014 at 10:36
Vesko,
nice piece!
I am similarly afflicted. Most recently I have just jumped in the car and set off from
Echuca for
Lake Mungo, and on another occasion the
Border Track after a cruise through the Wimmera and Mallee. For no particular reason.
I always prefer the road less travelled, and will avoid the Hume Freeway at all costs. When I commute to
Canberra I try to find a different way each time. The longest trip took in
Hay, Booligal,
Hillston,
Lake Cargellico, West Wyalong - luckily I had all day!
Not only do I love the actually driving and just being off the beaten track, I somehow find an excuse to surround myself with a host of electronic gadgets and radios, my other passion.
One of the best feelings is heading off on a long trip, vehicle set up, and not a care for two weeks.
I seem to have a preference for flat open arid and semi arid country. But the rolling
farm lands of western NSW and the Wimmera aren't bad. I often head west from
Echuca to the Terrick Terrick area. Nice rocky outcrops, native white pines, no people.
Bob
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