Saturday 9th September 2023. Day 4.
Today was a travel day so not much to report and little in the way of photos.
I saw my first live kangaroo today on the A1 road coming into Eden; perched on the side of the road it was pretty small and I was glad it decided not to cross in front of me. I don’t need a dead ‘roo on my conscience. Alas saw a number of dead ones (and wombats) on the side of the road. But a major “I saw a …” moment.
On Driving
Bruce and my Aussie friends all told me I’d hate driving in Australia because it’s so slow. Well, after 300 miles I have to say I loved every moment of it. City roads in the Sydney outskirts have 40-80km/h limits with lots of changing up and down between those so you have to pay attention. Outside the city, main roads road were 100km/h (62mph) limit areas. Reasonable number of traffic speed cameras, however most are posted well in advance and Apple Maps announced their presence too. I saw one mobile police camera unit on the entire trip (I also saw my first 911 today not a mile from that camera and flashed them a courtesy “hello” – I have seen three Macan and one 718 Cayman until now).
My compliance was made much easier by two things – firstly, the Peugeot 508GT I rented has full range cruise control, meaning I set the speed and it will adjust to follow a safe distance behind the vehicle in front all the way down to a full halt and then restart and follow at my preset distance. That took a lot of worrying about what my speed was out of the equation. Secondly, the speed limit felt perfectly fine for the road conditions. These are two lane roads and not the multi-lane roads with dividers that represent much of the American rural and interstate system.
It gave me time to relax, enjoy the scenery, watch out for ‘roos and make the most of my travel day. Oh, I should also mention the Peugeot has an excellent lane keep assist system that basically steers the car for you – all the time. It monitors that you have hands on the wheel but frankly it did 90% of the driving. Yes I know, it’s not an engaging driving experience (and I could have turned off all these assistance features), but on a get-from-a-to-b trip, it’s a good, safe system. [in the same vein, I don’t trust autonomous driving systems because I like to remain in control].
Tomorrow is a travel day also – Eden to Yarra Glen (wine country) so there won’t be much in the way of updates/photos.
- Day 1 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/06/welcome-to-sydney/
- Day 2 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/07/a-nautical-day/
- Day 3 in Sydney is now available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/08/il-porcellino/
- Day 4, the coastal drive to Eden is available here: https://cynicalgsd.com/2023/09/09/dead-or-alive-the-roo-edition/
Sage's Musings 
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