We drove over 3,000km, but still only covered a small corner of WA. It was very different driving to the UK or Europe – a lot of long straight roads, through nowhere, that look like the first Europeans in WA were the Romans, with road signs warning of the dangers of driving when tired. Other challenges include large areas with no phone coverage (but no need for map reading decisions), overtaking 42m road trains, carefully planning petrol stops and dealing with animals on the roads. We saw plenty of evidence of roadkill, mainly kangeroos which are a particular danger at dawn and dusk. At a petrol station in the middle of nowhere, we found ourselves comparing roadkill with a young French couple driving a campervan – ours was a group of malleefowl, theirs was red-breasted cockatoos. Driving any distance in WA, with a speed limit of 110km, near misses are likely – our path was crossed by one kangeroo, thankfully without incident. There are plenty of warning signs, invariably in the wrong places.
One of the benefits of a road trip is the things you see along the way and the encounters that are “day to day” in the context of the environment. We had a number of breaks for refreshments/petrol and took a number of detours, most of which were worthwhile and none felt like wasted time.
Shilli-Fully Travels 