The Big Drive

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Just for time line continuity; today was our big drive down the Bruce Highway.


We travelled 840 km (525 miles) This might not sound like much to North Americans but this took us about 8 hours. Keep in mind that the Bruce Highway is only two lanes, one heading north and one heading south. It is the main highway in Queensland so there is a lot of traffic, not only local transport and touritst but there are big trucks called road trains. Also the highway is very narrow and not so smooth. We are mindful that the population of Austraila is that of about Californina but spead through a continent the size of the U.S. The tax base just can't possibly support multiple lane highways. Also, one must keep a sharp eye out for wallabys and kangaroos. We must have seen a road kill every 20 to 30 minutes! We saw dozens wallabys and kanagroos the way we didn't want to.


Interestingly the price of fuel is cheaper in the tourist areas than on the main highway. Along the highway the price averaged about $1.24/L. In the tourist areas about $1.14/L. Keeping in mind the price we try to fill up in the tourist areas. Once we waited too long and almost ran out of fuel. We refused to pay $1.30/L and thought we would go to the next station which turned out to be 75 km away. Our tank holds 60L and we put in 59.5 L. We thought we would be walking. Then I'd have a picture of Andreas walking down the Bruce Highway with his thumb in the air.

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