1000 kilometres to
cover on the straight
and boring Stuart
Highway
It was one of the “warnings” that well-meaning people had often espoused “Watch out for the road trains,
they won’t slow down for anyone”. Utter rubbish and not at all true. This is not Mad Max country and these
are professional drivers. The very nature of outback roads is the excellent visibility and long straight stretches
with very little traffic so anyone overtaking a tiny postie bike going 75km/h has 3 to 4 kilometres in which to
judge their approach and execute their manoeuvre. I found, without exception, that the truck drivers were the
epitome of courtesy and always flashed their lights or tooted their horn in greeting, and generally waited at
least 500 metres before pulling back into my lane so as not to knock us off with back wash.