Driving on the ozzie roads.

When we arrived a week ago we had already arranged our rental car with Thrifty. We were expecting a cheap Hyundai Getz but were surprised that the smallest car that Thrifty rents out is a Ford Focus, which in Europe would be a very reasonable car to drive. The driving out of the airport was relatively easy, they made it fool-proof ( 1 lane only, no left or rights ) and plenty of signs stating "Keep Left". The roads in Queensland are undergoing major maintenance at the moment under a government initiative called "Safer Roads Sooner" which implies that their roads weren't very safe like most people have told us. We were warned of potholes the size of small moon craters, deranged wallabies ( a wallaby is like a wannabe rat ) and aggressive kangaroos blocking the road and road trains driving past at 110 kilometers an hour ( this one is actually true ! ). The potholes are a myth, there are more potholes in European roads than on the roads we have driven on so far here in Queensland. Almost every road here has been refurbished in the last few years. There are a LOT of roadworks everywhere. From small town roads to major highway works. They do work very efficiently, which made me think of the Dutch roadworks. They work mostly at night on the highways and the next day you'll just see 5 new kilometers of fresh tarmac, it's amazing how fast they work.
After driving out of the airport terrain, things get more tricky. We made sure we had a GPS ( a small Garmin Nuvi ) with us because with didn't want to have to look up things on maps, and we also had rented an automatic car, which really helped ( tip : When you rent a car in Australia, get an automatic one ). With automatic, you can focus on driving on the right side of the road... which really means left side. Right, so the left side. The inside mirror takes some getting used to since you are sitting on the right side of the car instead of the left side, which can be confusing at first. Even now, a week later we still sometimes try and get in on the passenger seat to drive. ( usually excused by a "I was just checking if the door was still hanging on the car"-kind of excuse ). So you drive out the airport and it's dark outside ( most planes land after dark in Brisbane ) and you're driving on the other side of the road after a 27 hour flight, and you're jetlagged, believe me we were happy with our automatic transmission and GPS !

You get used to driving on the left side of the road real quick, the real caveat is that you forget it sometimes, Kim usually is very quick to point out "LEFT LEFT LEFT !!!! EEEK! " while squirming and making all kinds of hand gestures in the car when I evade a big SUV coming straight at us. It does keep you awake to have a few of those episodes. Lately we haven't had any though, only the first 2-3 days and only when I'm thinking of something else, or looking at houses or just outside at the beautiful scenery.

--To be continued, we're going to do a sundowner with Dale and Francine now--

--The next morning, with another beautiful blue sky--

Having a Sundowner means having an evening beer on the veranda outside. Dale and Francine are our hosts here at our Bed&Breakfast in Mango Hill. They're both in their 30's and moved here from the UK about 4 years ago for the same reasons as most people move here : Sunshine and lifestyle. Had a nice evening with them despite the fact that we all were very tired from work and running around everywhere. Dale brews his own beer because the beer in the shops is terribly expensive ( about 3 dollars per beer, although you can get cheaper beers but also more expensive ones for that matter ). His beers are delicious : They taste just like Corona beer ! 1 beer did it for me though, I think the alcohol % is a tad higher than the average beer.

The highways here are well organized. You get long ( I mean, LONG ) ramps as exits and entries to the highway, which means that most trucks enter the highway at 100 kilometers an hour and don't disrupt traffic. There aren't many exits or ramp ups ( usually 1 ramp every 10 kilometers. Ofcourse, you get more ramps the closer you get to the big cities, but we've mostly been driving the Bruce Highway up and down the sunshine coast. The roads at night are not lighted, but there are cat-eyes ( the little reflectors in the middle and sides of the road ) all along the roads so it's much safer driving than the dark highways in for instance Belgium, you can see where the road is heading for kilometers ahead, just using the headlights and the cat-eyes in the road. The highways are usually straight and when there's a bend it's a very soft bend, nothing like the german "U-turn"-like bends you get sometimes. The quality of the road is good : It's tarmac all the way ( unlike the concrete-slab-highways is Belgium which make terrible noise when you drive over them ). On highways you can usually drive 120 except some spots where 110 or 100 is the limit. Overall I never had the idea that we were going too slow ( like I did in the USA ). It also seems that everyone drives about the same speed. There are very few slowpokes on the road. Everyone uses their cruise control at 100 kilometers an hour and people are fine with that. The trucks are usually driving faster than the cars at 110-120 per hour, no matter how large they are. The Queenslanders are good drivers compared to Europeans : They are courteous and I haven't met a road-rager yet. In fact, I have yet to hear someone honking. People will adhere to zebra crossings for pedestrians, they will always stop for them, something that in holland is a rarity. When two roads merge, people will let you merge without you having to fight for your right. However people expect you to keep driving on your side of the road until the very last end where everyone "zips in". All in all I'm impressed by the friendliness of the Queensland driver.
Once in a while there are pieces of tires on the highways ( big pieces , usually from blown tires off heavy road trains ). They will be picked up the same day but the next day it seems another blown tire from another truck is left at a slightly different spot. There is no M.O.T. ( APK Keuring ) in Queensland which means that people will drive their tires literally till they blow up, which is reflected by the amount of tire "residue" on the highways. The roads are clean and the shoulders are nice and tidy.
Driving over the Bruce Highway reminded us of the road from Vancouver to Calgary in Canada. There are big green forests ( plantations actually ) along most of the highway, something that at first sounds very strange : A dry and water-deprived country like Australia having huge green forests. It looks a bit like Canada, but then cleaner ( Our impression of Canada is that it's a bit messy , loads of big rusty road signs everywhere spoiling the views and the pristine outlooks ). Not a lot of signs out here in Australia, but a similar scenery.

We'll try and make some short movies and add them to the blog posts so people can get an idea of what we're talking about.