After pulling in the Mansfield Park Farmstay in Sarina, Queensland after dark last night, we were excited to wake up and explore the farm by daylight. We were still in the tropics, but had climbed to approximately an 800 feet elevation fairly quickly by way of switchbacks. (Very interesting drive in the dark!) The nights were cool, but quickly warmed well in to the 80's after breakfast. We spent the morning admiring the gorgeous scenery and feeding all of the farm animals.
View of the hillside from our cabin.
Once all of the animals were fed, we reluctantly packed ourselves back into Moses for our longest day of driving yet. We had about an 8 hour drive ahead of us to Bundaberg, Queensland.
Some thoughts on driving in Australia...
In so many ways Australia felt like home. We were meeting so many like-minded families, they spoke English and lived modern lifestyles that we were accustomed to. But there were small things that reminded us that we were very far away from home. One of those was driving. Of course there was the obvious - we were driving in a car that looked opposite from what we were used to and we were driving on the left hand side of the road. It took Rich 3 weeks of driving to finally be able to put the turn signal on without first turning on the windshield wipers!
But we also soon got a flavor for the Australian highway system and just how vast and sparsely populated the country really is. The national highway was a well-paved two lane road that ran parallel to the coast connecting various small towns along the way. Instead of the threat of deer jumping into the path of our speeding behemoth of a car, we were on the lookout for kangaroos and wallabies. Thankfully, our car didn't connect with any of these Aussie creatures, although, we saw several lying alongside the road that had connected with other passing automobiles. Australia also has a high rate of accidents due to drivers falling asleep at the wheel. You can literally drive for hundreds of kilometers and see no sign of civilization - only lots of beautiful countryside covered with eucalyptus trees. Thus we saw many signs and billboards reminding drivers to pull over if needed to stay alert. Our favorite sign read, "Tired drivers die." No beating around the bush there. Another favorite was the following:
We also noticed 'Driver Reviver' stations where one could pull over to get a free cup of coffee and some biscuits (cookies) to get the caffeine and sugar levels pumped up. Didn't try one out, but great idea.
Speed limit sign. It took awhile to get used to looking for the various traffic signs on the left hand side. Years of habits are hard to break. By the end of the trip, we could finally talk to Rich while he drove. Early on it took every ounce of his concentration!
We pulled in Sean M.'s house in Bundaberg just in time for a delicious dinner. Sean runs a counseling center there where he uses Childwise. He had a full day planned for Anne Marie tomorrow so we were off to bed early!
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