Australia is crisscrossed with undulating ribbons of straight highway.
There are long, straight stretches, but driving them can be like riding
across a desert on a camel, which we've not done, but imagine is
similar. The dips and rolls in the pavement cause the car to dip and
roll, with occasional sudden thuds when it is impossible to miss a
pot-hole. This is usually happening at 110Kms/hr. Camel speed would be
less harrowing, we think.
We learned about Australian Road Trains from little Francis Sandoz just
before we left home in January. We were therefore expectantly looking
out for them in the two areas Francis alerted us to in North and South
Australia. We have seen lead vehicles with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 trailers,
and have some fun footage of them at rest and moving. What was
unexpected are the mammoth vehicles we have been seeing. Mining is big
here in Australia, and the mining vehicles are bigger than one might
imagine.
An already oversize flatbed trailer can carry a digger with
tracks that overhang the flatbed a meter on each side. When the
"Oversize Load" forward pick-up truck comes around a corner, or over a
hill in the oncoming lane with flashing lights, we pay attention and
pull over or even stop on the shoulder, if it is stable (which it is
usually not). Hard working farm vehicles and hard playing personal
outback (wilderness) vehicles are also large scale.
The people in Australia seem to have, as one would expect, a unique
outlook on life and how to treat one another. They speak kindly to each
other in a way that seems genuine. "Good-morning sunshine, how 'ya
goin', y'ol bastrd?", has been heard more than once in exchanges between
pals at camps. "Good-morning peach (plum, or other fruit endearment)", "
hows we do for you?". We rarely pass by an Australian who does not say
"g'day" and "how 'ya goin?". We never feel invisible, which can often
happen at home. On the road, we rarely see another on-coming car whose
driver does not wave. Bob and I have experienced this in Canada on our
cross-country bike ride. So, maybe it is common in countries or
communities with less dense population distribution. The okay wave is an
"o" with thumb and first finger high around the steering wheel, and the
middle-to-little fingers fanned to make a high "k". We've reflected on
the invisibility of the indigenous people, and what might be the
association with the genuine and constant greetings we receive. This is a
sociological point of reference we need to work through more.
A 1999 Australian law resulted in allowances for the round-up to varying
degrees of feral species. The hit list in sensitive bio-regions include
dingo (dog), cat (cats, meow), bee, camel, goat, sheep, cattle, pig,
deer, cane toad (reportedly the greatest feral danger to all life in
Australia), rabbit, brumby (horse) and not to mention various insidious
plants. Some species, in particular goats, but not pigs, are rounded up
and sent in loads to India. From our previous visit to India in February
2017, we've seen these end up in the small descriptive box on Indian
restaurant menus as one of the three non-veg choices, as "mutton" (the
other two choices in the little non-veg box are "fish" and "chicken").
We love the sound of some place names we have read in Australia, and
that speak to the indigenous presence. Similar to our familiar Kitwanga,
Kitwancool and Tsawaassen or Saanich. We'd find knowing Australian
place names handy in a game of pronoun bananagrams (speed scrabble).
There are handfuls of o's, scatterings of g's, b's, m's and p's and a
few other hard consonants and vowels. Moopoobar, Toowoomba, Warrimoo,
Woolgoolga. A didgeridoo or kangaroo would also do if nouns,
non-pronouns, were allowed in the game. The indigenous place names are
in places replacing imposed colonial names and some lands and resources
are being repatriated. That is something beyond a "sorry book".
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