Back from the long paddock.Its a long way to
Perth and back, and seems to get longer as I get older. I rekkon suicidal trucks, emus, roos, sheep, goats (had to mention them:) and cows took a few years off my life expectancy.
Lots of people waved, were friendly etc but sadly the ones I'll probably remember are those who behaved badly on the roads. For example driving out of the sun without any lights; I like to see and be seen so
mine were on all the time.
Met a host of characters along the way, too many yarns for here.
Bush camped in the car south of
Cobar due to a lack of accomodation in
Broken Hill.Good dust storm came up durinmg the night and of course my window was open a bit. Instant interior colour change.
Other occupant of
rest area was an explosives truck driven by a woman. No, she didn't smoke.
Welcome to
Cobar. Half the NSW police and customs people with dogs flagged me down. Checked the vehicle for nasties (never seen it done before) but didn't want to check drivers for ink a hol or drugz. I'm betting they had intelligence that a large shipment was passing that way.
Long distance trukkies were great, the ones on a tight schedule that couldn't pass me weren't so great. They did, however, provide me with entertainment on the cb as they called me everything under the sun. Have a nice day fellas.
However the worst driver overtook me on unbroken lines and blind corners at a zillion
miles an hour on the road not a km from my house! Temporary citizen methinks.
By Golly there were a lot of vans out there. Almost all drove responsibly and carefully, and were extremely friendly.
All except the van from hell. Sat a metre (or so it seemed) behind my rear at 110K, trying to pass me. A 4wd pulling a full sized van. I just slowed down and got out of his way.
Down at the fruit
gate, there he was. And there was the inspector carrying a bag of forgotten fruit out of the van. Instant $200 fine! Most unfortunate but on thios occasion I said to myself, "Yes! There is a God!"