My whole attitude towards driving can be summed up in three words: - I love driving. It may not appear to be saying much but it really says it all. Some people consider driving a chore, something that must be done in order to travel from point A to point B, but I find it to be an experience that goes beyond that. There's something almost otherworldly about it. To encase oneself in an immense metal casing and then hurl oneself along predefined routes at high speeds, trusting four pieces of rubber to retain a connection, however tenuous, with the planet's surface could almost be a fevered suggestion of fantasy.
It does not matter whether the experience of driving is the product of some mass delusion or not, I still love it. I might find long journeys tiring; I might grow tense during encounters, however fleeting, with noodle-head drivers; I might even collide with the occasional embankment: but I still derive great satisfaction and enjoyment from launching myself forth on some driving escapade.
Some of my most pleasant memories are from when I lived out west where the land was flat and dry, and the roads were long, lonely and straight. I remember driving late at night - some appropriate 'driving late at night' music filling the car cabin while outside the silver leaves of the brigalow trees reflected the light of the highbeam in an alien, almost surrealistic, manner. Before me, on either side of the road, would stretch the long straight rows of white and red reflectors - the only evidence of the existence of humanity.
I always found this late night driving to be almost hypnotic. So much so, on the sporadic occasions when the line of reflectors would begin to curve to the right or left, it would usually take me several seconds to realize that such phenomena meant that the road was changing direction and that I would have to be prepared to move the steering wheel if I desired to continue my journey on bitumen. Fortunately, for me as well as any potentially startled wildlife, I always chose that option.
Yes, that was driving - long straight roads, almost nonexistent traffic, no traffic lights - just me, the music, the car, the endless road, the brigalow and the gleaming stars. Some nights I felt as if I could have kept on driving forever.
But then I moved back to civilization with its traffic lights and its stop-start method of driving. Naturally, I had passed all the necessary tests required in order for me to obtain my license, but I discovered that, since my sojourn in the solitude of the outback, apparently a lot of road rules had been altered.
And so, for your edification, just in case you ever find yourself driving on Australian roads, I shall list some observations below on what are apparently the new rules of the road:
There are numerous other handy tips for discourteous driving that I could include but I think that these are enough for present. I hope you have found them enlightening.
Return to
Muse page.
Return to Main page.