What time is it there?!

In England you usually just think of 'Roads', you don't normally have to worry about whether or not they have a tarmac surface. But it's different here, and when you're planning a trip you need to consider what the 'road' is actually going to look like! There are of course sealed roads linking most major towns, but to get to the more remote communities you are likely to find that you need to travel 150km along what looks like a dirt track (we didn't!).

One advantage of the more remote minor roads (and major roads in the Northern Territory) is that when you get away from the towns there is (so we have been assured) no speed limit. One reason for this is the road trains, big trucks with up to 4 trailers that can be 120ft long. If you get stuck behind one of these you want to be going quickly when you overtake or you'll be on the wrong side of the road for a long time.

Unlimited speed is not all good though, there are places where the tarmac section of the road is suddenly only wide enough for one car. There's still room for two cars of course, it's just that the outer edge of each lane is effectively a dirt road. So when you meet oncoming traffic you just have to take to drive off the edge of the tarmac and hope for the best!

There is also the danger of (literally) running into kangaroos, emus etc. in the middle of the road at any time. This did mean that at last we saw a real live kangaroo in the wild, and we didn't hit it either!