Long straight road - Stuart Highway in the Northern Territory

It didn't take us long to get back into the travel mode and we were back on
the road again. The Stuart Highway does not offer much variation - just long
straight roads with desert surroundings. It is necessary to be constantly
vigilant for stock wandering on the edges of the road as there are no fences
and the large bulls and cows would cause a very serious accident if hit. It
is not unusual to see dead stock on the sides of the roads - possibly hit by
the road trains at night.

Road trains are constantly travelling this road - the signage on the highway
says that they are up to 53 metres in length and we have no idea but they
are huge and they travel at their allowed speed limit and the road speed
limit is 130 kilometres per hour. As soon as we see one coming we aim to
pull over as far as possible to allow them to pass. We haven't yet struck
one truck driver yet who is not courteous and they often call on the radio
telephone and thank us for pulling over.

So how do we fill in the time - listening to music mainly and Peter likes to
eat! This includes lots of lollies (much to my annoyance) and a steady
supply of fruit and other nibbles. This often annoys me as he asks me for
yet another lolly from the packet in the glove box. It got so annoying the
other day when he accused me of always giving him only the small ones (how
was I to know that there were various sizes in the bag - I just grab and
hand over) I literally threw the bag into his lap and told him I wanted
nothing more to do with his sweets. It was certainly happy families for a
half hour or so! (Mind you Peter in his normal fashion just laughed and
continued on as it nothing had happened - well he did this after he had his
little hissy - Peter wrote this sentence he really is such a sensitive new
age guy :-))

Just as well we arrived at our destination and we had something else to
think about. I note that he has been quick to gain support from his
daughter but his son was just as quick to put limits on his lolly eating. (
Peter here again as if Cam would know - well really he is not as in tune
with his body as I am).

Driving hundreds of kilometres of these long straight roads can certainly
test the limit of endurance!