chunder down under

Due to not traveling as much distance as expected the previous day, today I would have to get some serious distance behind me and get as close to Brisbane as possible. In the end I traveled about 1200km. There were few people on the road, and I was always traveling with the same few cars, passing and being passed by the same people depending on stops. This part of the journey was impossible to keep to the speed limit due to the sheer boredom of the roads and scenery, and I passed one of my fellow travelers stopped at the side after having been pulled over by the police.
It was also HOT, and I counted myself lucky that I had aircon. There was also a lot of roadkill, mainly small wallabies/kangaroos/difficult to tell. I wanted to make Noosa by nightfall as driving at night has it’s dangers, mainly as things like kangaroos wander out into the road, but also that as I didn’t have a map it would be harder to work out where I was.
I passed through Rockhampton, or Rocky as it’s affectionately known, which is Australia’s main beef and cattle town and has somewhat of a cowboy feel to it, including rodeos. Then it was back onto the long highway sections, the gaps between the petrol stations meaning that I had to keep a close eye on my fuel as if I missed one and was low I may not make the next (although I did have a spare jerry can in the boot). I got to Hervey Bay, which was one of my possible stops, but seemed to be making good time so I decided to press on. Gympie was next, a name that has always amused me.
Finally I made Noosa, although in the dark I almost missed the turn-off. I discovered extra problems of night driving as my windscreen became almost obscured under the green gunk of splattered insects, some of which were big enough to land with a sizeable “thunk”. Add to that the glare of massive oncoming trucks and I was glad when I made it into the town, despite the fact that it seemed to be entirely composed of roundabouts with signs pointing to where I had just come from. Everywhere also seemed to be called some variation of Noosa – Noosaville, Noosa Heads, Noosa Junction etc. Eventually after driving endlessly round and round I found a hostel, making it just in time for happy hour – hooray!
Luckily I hadn’t pushed on to the Gold Coast – a news report mentioned a massive hail storm (hail stones the size of golf balls) which could have seriously damaged my car. I think I did about 1200km that day, due to the speed limits and road conditions I probably drove about 14 hours.