i didn't know you used to live down here!
ITs a great country. And that happens SO often. My dad also was chatting to someone on a flight from UK and they said they had hired a rental car at brisbane to drive to Townsville or something... and dad said... oh yes, how many days are you doing that in?
the couple were like... ah.... we check in later tonight... and dad laughed... and said... cancel the rental car and go to the domestic airport its a 15 hour drive! They couldn't believe it.. lol
Distances here are just so vast.
There is a road going out into the centre.. from brisbane to longreach, where we stopped the car in the middle of the HIGHWAY and took photos pretending to be roadkill on the road. lying down in the middle of the highway for a nap... we hadn't seen a car in either direction for like 1 hour. and the road was so straight it just dissapears into the horizon in either direction. When it floods it just turns into a red brown soupy swimming pool.
You didn't know I am Australian?
( I should Oi Oi Oi more)
I have done Cairns to Brisbane in 19h non stop. Also Adelaide to Cairns in less than 48... but that was driving at a slightly higher speed through the middle :) Never been to Longreach, but I have been on some of the roads without cars for hours. Pretty amazing there are roads there at all really.
One of my regrets is not exploring more of Australia when I was there. Even living in Cairns for eight years, I didn't do much unless family was vising from S.A. We tend to take our surroundings for granted, until they are no longer available.
no i missed that bit... I assumed (yikes) that you were possibly UK. And moved to Finland. Not sure how i missed that. but i did. Or there is the worse possibility that i DID know that and forgot. Appologies.
I hear you on taking surroundings for granted. There are some wonderful places here in Australia. and just SUCH a different type of landscape with different daily challenges.
Cairns i have only been to once, flew in the airport on the way to Port Douglas for our honeymoon. Rainforest. is Just so....well its just so intense!
It always surprises me when people don't know basic facts about the world they live in. The number of people that despite the finances have never left their country and never experienced another culture. NOT that needless air travel should be something they spend money on, just saying that people in general possibly don't have an understanding that live is different in different places.
One of my funniest travel moments was a fresh of the airplane 50 year old American woman who had never left US before experiencing Paris Toilets for the first time...
I was like... umm... these are not THAT different... and was genuinely worried for the rest of her big Europe trip.. lol
anyway have a great day,
I have some stories from Port Douglas.... Nice place to honeymoon!
If Paris toilets are bad, hopefully she makes a trip to China. :D
Travelling is great, but many seem to travel for the sake of travelling, not actually to experience new. It is like they spend all the time comparing similarities and differences, rather than getting to know the place.