Unexpected rain the night before we were due to set off on the boarding school return raised hope in the children and caused a delay while the 80kms of dirt dried out (mostly).
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No-one wants to be the person who leaves six-inch deep wheel tracks up the middle of the road.
A few caravans passed me, heading west (and probably north) for the winter, just the first trickle of what can feel like a flood of passing motorists as the weather cools.
It's great to see travellers heading outback. Welcome to wonderful western Queensland, home to endless night skies, clear sunny days and roads that go on forever.
However.....you might have noticed that while our bitumen roads are long, they are often not wide!
People are sometimes unsure of the correct passing etiquette, so I'm going to share my thoughts. These apply to single lane or gravel roads.
1. Lift your foot when passing, their windscreen will thank you.
2. If you are bigger than me, I'll slow down in the tabledrain for you. Please reciprocate if I'm bigger than you.
3. Road trains are trumps! (Unless you're driving a really wide load). If you're slower than them, get off the road and let them pass. If you're faster than them, suck it up until you find good, wide, safe passing bitumen.
4. If you meet someone else who uses rule two, take the gesture as it's intended, lift your foot, keep all your wheels firmly on the bitumen and give them a big wave. We (I) will respond by heaping praise and good travelling vibes upon you. Should you drop off the bitumen and shower us with gravel despite our friendly overture, we (I) will rain vigorous curses down on you....and probably your ancestors.
5. Treat dust with extreme caution....like the stuff that gets on my window sills, you think you can see through it but then realise you can't! Even the small amount of dust created with two wheels off the bitumen can obscure other traffic.
6. Safe following distance on a single lane or gravel road at 100km/hour is much larger than on a multi-lane highway at 60km/hour. If you're sitting up someone's clacker and they blow a tyre or lose rubber, it's probably heading for your windscreen, the same as that random rock they ran over.
7. Better late than dead. Please be safe and enjoy our part of the country.
- Wendy Sheehan, rangelands grazier
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