Day 1
October 30, 2011
Though we left approximately two hours and two days later than we planned, our (somewhat grueling) schedule still has us getting to Perth next Saturday, so it's all good.
We started the drive from Jamie's parents' house just outside Brisbane. From there, we went inland through Toowoomba (foggy) and crossed the state border from Queensland to New South Wales at Goondawindi (non-descript) where we began to head Southwest into the Outback to our stopping point for the night in Bourke.
As we drove, it became readily apparent just how remote we were getting. Green grass and busy highways with clean edges and shining guardrails gave way to scraggly trees, scrub brush and that deep brick red-colored earth so characteristic of the Outback. Heat waves shimmered ahead of us and emus casually trotted beside the road. My meltdown at Jamie for not stopping at the emu farm in Goondawindi became slightly ridiculous as one large emu, seemingly inspired by the recent Australian release of Fast Five, attempted to race our car. Bet you they don't let the farm emus do that. However, impressive though it was, a large and very stupid bird running at full speed along a highway did nothing to lessen my fear of running over an Australian animal. In addition to (live) emu, kangaroo, lizards and birds, we saw dead kangaroos, birds, rabbits, lizards, snakes and one very sad (and very dead) fox.
It seems this Australian highway is a veritable killing field for Australian fauna and I live in fear of killing anything larger than the bugs who kamikaze themselves into our windscreen. We narrowly avoided participating in what appeared to be a magpie suicide pact, and Jamie avoided killing what must have been the world's bravest lizard who refused to move from his comfortable spot dead in the middle of the road, forcing Jamie to run directly over it, allowing it to pass unscathed between our tires. I actually performed a similar feat a couple hours later with a snake, but the more I think about it, I'm pretty sure mine was already dead so....less impressive.
Well, I hate to leave you with tales of flattened animals, but I am exhausted. Tomorrow, Broken Hill.
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